[NHCOLL-L:5059] Re: is the best method of preserving insect damage fruit

[couteaufin at aol.com]

 If you want to preserve these in fluids, try Kew mixture as a fixative and Copenhagen mixture as a preservative.  Both contain ethanol, water and glycerine and the fix also contains formalin.  I can't quite remember the proportions off the top of my head but they should be google-able!  Emma Tredwell of Kew RBG did a brief paper on these fluids a few years ago.
These fluids maintain turgidity of fruits and the colour is generally quite well maintained.  There are also other colour preservatives for fruits mentioned in Fidler & Wagstaffe's excellent books.
Apologies for the slight vagueness but am away from home!

 

With all good wishes, Simon.

Simon Moore MIScT, FLS, ACR,
Conservator of Natural Sciences,
20 Newbury Street,
Whitchurch RG28 7DN.

www.natural-history-conservation.com
www.pocket-fruit-knives.com
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
To: dyanega at ucr.edu; NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Sent: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 17:23
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:5057] Re: is the best method of preserving insect damage fruit


I would tend to agree.  With preservation in liquid (ethanol) you would have 

similar problems to zoological material stored the same way:



1.  Specimens preserved directly in ethanol do not stand the tests of time as 

well as those first fixed in formalin.  I have no experience with fixation or 

preservation of plant material.  Maybe a botanist could comment on how they 

preserve fruit (other than drying)?

2.  Unless you inject the fruit you will have inconsistent preservation 

throughout the fruit with the potential for it to still decay over time at its 

core.



I would suggests removing cucurbits as voucher specimens from the fruit, taking 

lots of high res photo's the fruit itself and the damage and attaching those to 

the voucher specimens in the collection database.



Andy



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 Andy Bentley

 Ichthyology Collection Manager

 University of Kansas

 Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center

 Dyche Hall

 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard

 Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561

 USA



 Tel: (785) 864-3863

 Fax: (785) 864-5335

 Email: ABentley at ku.edu        :

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-----Original Message-----

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On 

Behalf Of Doug Yanega

Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 11:04 AM

To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu

Subject: [NHCOLL-L:5056] Re: is the best method of preserving insect damage 

fruit



>Posting on behalf of a plant health consultant who would like to 

>know how to best preserve whole fruit and cucurbits damaged by 

>insect larval feeding. Any suggestions appreciated.



I find it hard to imagine any way to preserve such tissues other than 

the way one would *normally* preserve such things: basically, by 

pickling them. Any method that involves drying, even freeze-drying, 

is going to involve a loss of color, shape and definition of the 

damaged portions. Even pickling may not leave things exactly as they 

appeared originally. That being said, with digital photography as 

cheap and easy as it is, I'd think you could do almost just as well 

(better, in several respects) if one took lots and lots of close-up 

photos with a scale bar in them. If nothing else, having photos means 

there are no physical specimens to process and find long-term storage 

for, and also means that there are as many copies as one needs, 

instead of just the single original object. Only taxonomists are 

absolutely forced to maintain type specimens. ;-)



Peace,

-- 



Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum

Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega

phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)

              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html

   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness

         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82


 
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