Dried Specimens
Leptraps at aol.com
Leptraps at aol.com
Mon Jul 30 01:47:20 EDT 2001
Hey, I am back!
I've been to west Texas and Arizona on a collecting trip and found the thread
of dried specimens, drooping, and storage problems. I was employed for a
numbers of years and times with The Interior Steel Equipment Co., a
manufacture of steel cabinets for the storage of museum collections (The
product line is now manufactured by the Viking Cabinet Co., Chicago, IL). I
was part of the management team that designed and developed manufacturing
techniques to produce the finest cabinets in the world. Being a
Lepidopterist, I solved all of the problems you have with the use of these
steel cabinets. I now own two double door 48 drawer cabinets, ten single door
24 drawer cabinets and two single door 11 drawer cabinets. These are air
tight/light tight cabinets. (It has been said that you could fart in one of
these cabinets, immediately close the door, open it 50 years later and still
smell the fart!) I also developed a metal container to hold 3 OZ of PDB with
a magnetic strip to hold it to the door. I place PDB once every six months in
each cabinet and I have NEVER had a problem with dermestids. I also use a
larger container of the same type for a desiccant. I replace the desiccant
every other month. I also have a museum cabinet with shelves which will hold
approximately 200 spreading broads and the small amount of dried papered
material that I may have. I leave spread material on boards over a month. I
NEVER leave any material, spread on boards, in process specimens or mounted
specimens out side of a cabinet. Only when I am working on specimens are they
out of the cabinets. I store papered material in a freezer. When I do receive
papered material from other Lepidopterists, I put it in my freezer for a
month to kill any dermestids.
To help in wing positioning, I cut the wing muscles of most skippers and
larger moths. I degrease with either. I use cyanide as my killing agent.
I learned these techniques from the late Harry Clench and J.F.Gates Clark. I
have used them for over 30 years.
Maintaining a collection is a serious matter to me. My current collections is
25 years in process. I travel around the country collecting material, it is a
serious financial matter. I protect my collection in high quality drawers (I
make my drawers from BioQuip kits) and cabinets.
I occasionally find a specimen that has drooping wings. I simply relax the
specimen, cut the wing muscles and remount it.
Unfortunately, I started mounting specimens on seamstress pins as a young
boy. I mounted over 30,000 specimens before I learned about insect pins. I
mounted another 15,000 before changing over to insect pins in 1981. I have
since remounted about 20,000 specimens onto insect pins. The remaining
specimens were given away or donated to a museum. I still have another 3,000
specimens to remount. I based my remounting on the quality and scientific
value of the specimen.
I will need another cabinet next year. I will purchase a quality
airtight/light tight cabinet. I may even try a little test of time!
Cheers,
Leroy C. Koehn
202 Redding Road
Georgetown, Kentucky
USA 40324-2622
Tele.: 502-570-9123
Cell: 502-803-5422
E-mail: Leptraps at aol.com
"Let's get among them"
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