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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