When the arthropod specimens (in alcohol collection) are dirty and sometimes with fungus, what tips for cleaning do you advise in order to have clean samples for SEM ? (Most of them do not resist long ultrasonic cleaning because the cuticular armatures are fragile.) Is there any solution or treatment for dissolve fungus (and not chitin)?
Fungus could be dissolved by Clorox (5% of NaOCl). Not sure about chtin. It looks like you have a lot of other, probably organic, contaminant, forming a layer on surface of specimen. Try to wash your specimen thoroughly in several changes of liquid before drying.
Off the top of my head, I recall that Chitin is somewhat resistant to UV while active fungi spores are not (I do not know how dormant spores react as I'm a very bad biologist !).
Might be worth a try to irradiate your insects with UV prior to washing ?
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