[NHCOLL-L:2926] RE: climate-controlled facilities for entomology collections?

[John Early]

Colin

Right now I have people installing climate control ducting in my
entomology collection rooms.  Because we have such limited space we have
to use them to house people as well as collections, therefore we have
compromised on 18-+/-1 deg C and 50+/-5% RH.  From what I can gather
these sort of temperatures (or even higher) are fine for pinned
specimens;  but controlling humidity is more important particularly as a
preventive measure for insect and fungal pests.  

Wet collections are better stored at lower temperatures and in the dark,
preferably in  freezer rooms if you can afford them, because they
deteriorate in 70% ethanol at room temp. What's really important for
both wet and dry collections is that the envirnmtnal conditions are kept
stable and do not fluctuate - this is what causes warping in
boxes/cabinets allowing pest entry, breaks seals in jars or pops the
tops out of vials allowing evaporation and drop in alcohol
concentration.  I know that some people keep wet collections around 12
deg C which is just below the flashpoint for ethanol so this has an
added safety benefit. You may well ask how many wet collections in the
world have ever caught fire or exploded from ethanol vapour in the air,
but if you want lower temperatures be shameless and play the safety
card. In my experience administrators and managers respond to health and
safety issues better than care of collections because they know they are
accountable if anything bad happens to people.

Good luck with your project.  I hope you can get your project managers
to sing the same tune as you.

John

John Early
Manager Natural History and Curator of Entomology 
Auckland War Memorial Museum 
Private Bag 92018, Auckland, N.Z. 
telephone +64 9 306 7042 
fax +64 9 306 7091 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of colin favret
Sent: Thursday, 12 January 2006 9:27 a.m.
To: NHCOLL-L Natural History Collections List
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:2925] climate-controlled facilities for entomology
collections?

Hello all,

	The Illinois Natural History Survey collections appear set to
move to new facilities once they are constructed in a few years. We have
requested below-room temperature conditions for the entomological
collection, but some of the higher-ups in the construction process are
skeptical. To help with our justification, we'd like to mention the
practices of other, modernized collections. If your entomological
collection has been involved in a recent move to new facilities (say, in
the last ten years), would you please just tell me what climate-control
conditions are present? Thanks very much for your time.

	Incidentally, I have been unable to find the archives for this
list. 
Google just comes up with a confusing array of dead links. Do we have
one, and if yes, where is it?

Thanks, colin
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Colin Favret, Insect Collection Manager
Illinois Natural History Survey
1816 S Oak Street
Champaign IL 61820
217-244-2149
crf at uiuc.edu

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