I am starting a research on odonata diversity of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. I will be taking samples/specimens (only adults) on a weekly basis from the wetland of university. Sweeping net will be used for collection of adults. The data from each survey will be accumulated and a record will be made on a monthly basis.
Is this method appropriate? or can anyone suggest me more accurate methods?
Further, for preservation of the collected samples, can pinning be done after collecting them on envelopes, killing them after 24 hours and dipping them in acetone? or keeping them on some sort of plastic envelopes would be better instead of pinning them?
Dear Mr. Subedi,
I think your plan about collecting adults is good. About preservation methods, all of them are effective depending on your investigation, for example, if you want to display sample of any species you will need after collected insect in plastic envelpoe, to kill it by putted it in freezing for 30 to 60 minutes , then you can pinning it and leave to dry at room temperatue for 2 or 3 days then move it to the store box after added information of species name, date and place of collection.
I hope this simple method will be useful for you,
With best wishes
Huda
@Huda What is the difference between killing by freezing and killing by using ethyl acetate?
Hi Mr.Subedi,
In my experience, Killing by freezing is more safety and keeping the speciment fresh and with out any changing of its color. You can test that for one sample to see the result.
Thank you,
Huda
For me, I leave the odonata in plastic boxes for a day to empty their intestinal contents, then I put them in acetone for a few minutes to fix their colors then I spread them or pins in collectione boxes finally i add pieces of naphthalene or some drops of oil cade .to ward off insects . you can repeat this last action every month to preserve your insects.
Good luck
You also use ethyl acetate to kill odonates in a killings jars. In this action they will dead during short time without any morphological change. after the time, fumigate properly to odonate collection.
In my experience, I usually collect samples through net sweep method and then kill the sample in ethyl acetate for pinning. it is better than putting the sample in envelope. You can also preserve few samples in ethanol. it will not affect the color of the sample and u can also use this sample for later analysis like DNA extraction and many other if you preserved it in ethanol. you can pin it anytime when required. But if you simply want to pin it, best is killing by freezing. Your specimen remained in good condition for longer time
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