[Nhcoll-l] Rehydrating crustaceans

[Lazo-Wasem, Eric]

Dear Jamie,

I have been using "Aerosol OT," a wetting agent suggested to me by Bill Moser at the NMNH.  We have successfully been rehydrating tough as leather dried out leeches (140 years old) and amphipod crustaceans (types dried out from 1871).  The latter rehydrate so well that I can dissect the specimens and make permanent stained mounts in balsam.  Even plankton sample more than 50 years old have been rehydrated, and we can successfully mount copepods and daphniids after a weeks soak in A-OT.

An alternative is Tri-basic calcium phosphate, or the old house painters washing solution, TSP (tri-sodium phosphate).  Neither of these work nearly as well as Aerosol OT.  

Eric Lazo-Wasem
Yale Peabody Museum



-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Smith, Jamie
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 11:04 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Rehydrating crustaceans

Has anyone had any luck rehydrating crustaceans that have completely dried out?  If so, which method did you use?





Jamie M. Smith
Collections Manager, Invertebrates
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences
Phone: (919)707-8869
Fax:  (919)715-2294




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