[Nhcoll-l] Wooden storage cabinets

Thu Oct 7 12:33:51 EDT 2021

... might potentially foster or stimulate metal corrosion of historic 
insect pins (of poor quality) to some extent - depending on amount of 
VOCs that accumulated inside the drawer in combination with temperature 
and humidity (shifts)  ...

With best wishes
Dirk

Am 07.10.2021 um 18:12 schrieb Callomon,Paul:
>
> Doug et al.,
>
> I’ve also often wondered why the insect world persists with wooden 
> cases. It may be because there are few calcitic structures in most 
> insects – my limited understanding of them is that they are made 
> mostly of protein and carbohydrates like chitin – so Byne’s, which is 
> specific to calcium carbonate (and perhaps calcium phosphate, 
> mammalogy colleagues?) is less likely to rear its fuzzy head.
>
> PC
>
> Paul Callomon
>
> Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates//
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University***
>
> 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
> /prc44 at drexel.edu <mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 
> 215-299-1170/
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of 
> *Douglas Yanega
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 7, 2021 12:07 PM
> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] Wooden storage cabinets
>
> *External.*
>
> While the earlier parts of the thread about cotton wool and such did 
> not seem to be something that would ever concern me, the following does:
>
> On 10/7/21 6:32 AM, Callomon,Paul wrote:
>
>     Tightly-sealed wood cabinets are nevertheless hazardous for Byne’s
>     because acetic and formic acids are volatile at room temperature,
>     so they will migrate out of the wood and go in search of things to
>     eat regardless of atmospheric conditions. Lower humidity within
>     the cabinets mitigates this problem to some degree, but does not
>     solve it, and some woods such as oak are known to exude a lot of
>     acid. It may be possible to mitigate this with the equivalent of
>     the “sacrificial anode” on a wooden ship (that is, place a tray of
>     hygroscopic alkaline material in the cabinet that is more
>     attractive to the acids than the specimens) but I have not seen
>     this done.
>
> I manage a very large insect collection, and ALL insect collections, 
> without exception, use wooden drawers (though maybe not wooden 
> *cabinets* any more); my collection has over 5500 wooden drawers, 
> ranging in age from 1 to about 70 years. After over 20 years going to 
> international meetings for insect collection curators (the 
> Entomological Collections Network - ECN), I don't think I have ever 
> heard anyone say that keeping insect specimens in wooden drawers was 
> something that - *in and of itself* - was probably causing significant 
> damage to them over time. If there are acidic volatiles produced by 
> wood and paper, then insect collections ARE going to experience 
> significant exposure, and there are certain things one gets familiar 
> with in insect collections (black exoskeletons turning red/brown after 
> a few decades, pins embedded in cork corroding where they contact the 
> cork and getting stuck, etc.) that might be related to this, but not 
> fully appreciated as to the cause.
>
> That strikes me as an odd "disconnect", that a major part of the NH 
> museum community that very much stands to be affected by this 
> phenomenon would be so poorly-informed on the subject compared to 
> other subsets of the community. Has any of the literature and research 
> on this ever been performed by entomologists, or published in 
> entomological journals, where it could get broader attention, and it's 
> just being overlooked, or have we genuinely been left out of the 
> proverbial loop? A fairly targeted Google search reveals essentially 
> nothing in the entomological literature except a short note from 1992 
> (evidently by a colleague in my own department) suggesting that acid 
> outgassing from wood might cause corrosion in insect pins.
>
> If I'm not mistaken, then maybe one of you folks who is familiar with 
> the risks of VOCs outgassing from wood would be willing and interested 
> in contacting the program chairs for the impending annual ECN meeting, 
> which is online this year, via https://ecnweb.net/ecn2021/meeting/ 
> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fecnweb.net%2Fecn2021%2Fmeeting%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cprc44%40drexel.edu%7Cde638f9cafff404f66a008d989ac74dc%7C3664e6fa47bd45a696708c4f080f8ca6%7C0%7C0%7C637692196051893917%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=uq%2BmlxNd30VPwYq6qkYoncIjrchXdQwEpKKJ5Gi1K5Q%3D&reserved=0> 
> - the meeting is in only a few weeks (Oct. 25-27), and most of the 
> program is already set, but I have the impression that the organizers 
> would do their best to find a time for such a potentially important 
> presentation.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> -- 
> Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
> phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
>               https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html  <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffaculty.ucr.edu%2F~heraty%2Fyanega.html&data=04%7C01%7Cprc44%40drexel.edu%7Cde638f9cafff404f66a008d989ac74dc%7C3664e6fa47bd45a696708c4f080f8ca6%7C0%7C0%7C637692196051893917%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=GsP%2BtWdTy1pk%2FQya%2Fpwb8lbC%2B2aOTEPn%2Bx%2FEWoqtNdk%3D&reserved=0>
>    "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>          is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>
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-- 

Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

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Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
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---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

postal address:

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