Larval preservation

[Ron Gatrelle]

Kevin - When your post came in I was fairly tied up with other matters here
at the TILS office. Checking in on the emails it has been interesting that
no one has posted how to best do this.  Richard B. Dominick lived up the
road from me here in South Carolina. Dick was an MD by training but married
into wealth and devoted his life to moths. He was the founder behind MONA -
Moths of North America. Facing this same question he began to experiment
with "freeze drying" before most of us even knew there was such a thing.
Dick perfected this. His preserved immatures look more alive than living
ones - single caterpillars on sticks - whole clans of web worms (with or
without web) - etc. etc.

Seeing that this is still being discussed, I took the time to dig through
my library till I found Dick's published findings on this. His article is
in the Journal of the Lepid. Society VOL. 29 NO. 2  pages 69-79 (17 May
1972). I suggest anyone with any real interest in this area find a copy and
build Dick's set up. You will be glad you did.

Ron Gatrelle
president, The International Lepidoptera Survey
http://tils-ttr.org


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Bremner" <kbremn71 at maine.edu>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 4:37 PM
Subject: Larval preservation


> Is anyone familiar with a method for preserving caterpillars, either dry
> or in liquid, for identification/display purposes?
>
>
>
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