Preserving
Step-by-step protocol for preserving phasmid specimens with an alcohol-based method
(by Bruno Kneubühler, PhD Switzerland)
1) cut a paper to the following size:
lenght about 1,5 – 2 times the body lenght of the dead phasmid specimen (for larger species 2 times, for smaller species 1,5 times. You will find out what works best)
2) roll up the piece of paper - which is easy to do, if one rolls the paper over a pencil first !
3) close one end of the paper roll with a stapler
4) label paper roll with the collecting data (as precise as possible).
Please ONLY use a pencil for labeling the paper rolls, do NOT use ball-pens or similar things for this. Inscriptions made with other materials (like with ball pen or coloured pencils) will be erased by the alcohol used in this protocol!
Write in capital letters to avoid misconceptions.
5) prepare the phasmid specimen:
- for quite thick phasmid specimens (especially female specimens) it is important that one empties their abdomen. Use a sharp knife to open the abdomen from the ventra ("belly")l side. Take out the bowel
- then cross the front legs of the dead phasmid specimen in front of the head as shown in the photo below. Align middle and hind legs along the abdomen.
6) insert specimen into the labelled paper roll crossed fore legs and head first. Align feelers along the thorax and abdomen
7) close the second end of the filled and labelled paper roll with a stapler (make shure you leave enough room behind the specimen, in order not to damage it when you close the roll with the stapler)
8) these paper rolls are then stored in a plastic bottle with alcohole as preservative. For bigger species you may need one or even two litre bottles. Ad about 1 decilitre of alcohol to the bottle. Such plastic bottles (with a plastic cap !) are leak-proof, making it easy to store the preserved specimens for some time.
The alcohol used as preservative must contain at least of 80 vol% of alcohol - but better if the alcohol content is even higher! Such alcohol you can get from drug stores, where it is often sold as „sanitary alcohol“, „medical alcohol“ or „disinfectant alcohol“. It is also OK to use Isopropanol. Just make shure that you buy it from a trustworthy drug store.
If the bottle with the samples is being kept in a cool place (like a fridge), then you can store specimens for up to 10 months before sending them to us.
But if you have to keep them at room temperature, then they should not be stored for more than about 3 months, before sending them to us. Otherwise the samples may start to decay - despite the alcohol ! Turn the bottle from time to time to enshure that all paper rolls are soaked thoroughly with alcohol. And from time to time you can add some fresh alcohol (especially when kept at room temperature).
9) shipment of preserved phasmid specimens:
- fill about 2 decilitre of fresh alcohol (at least 80%) in the plastic bottle which contains the specimens). Then put the whole bottle into a robust, sturdy plastic box / container. This will protect the samples from being crushed in transport (as the plastic bottle does not offer much protection). Seal the lid of the container with a strong adhesive tape.
Do NOT use metal container - as metal containers might be detected by the x-ray maschines at airports as being potentially dangerous! Glas containers are also not suitable as they are too heavy and may break in transport.
- declare the shipment as "dead insects - for scientifc studies only". Do not mention that the speciemens are preserved in alcohol on the declaration sheet. Otherwise airlines might refuse to transport it.......