I want to save some turnip aphid samples temporarily, so I can send them for identification later. I want to know if I can use ethanol and at what percent and is there any other special way to store those insects.
You should use 70% ethanol but their color will be disappeared after short period (1-4 days). After 1- 2 months specimens become fragile ( loose setae) and breakable ( legs). You should use 100% ethanol for molecular application.
Hi Mustafa, I tested also storage of tiny insects and my experiments showed that 70% ethanol is not the best way. Use 99% ethanol. Cheers, Nadine
Depending on your future use of the of the aphid specimens, varoius choices of curation may be used. If the specimens are to be used for molecular applications absolute ethanol (99% laboratory grade); taxonomic applications diluted (70-80% ethanol). Look for analytical grade ethanol and monitor the tempreature+humidity of the storage facility. Basement storage of wet collection is the best option. Check with the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), Invertebrates section, Tervuren, in Belgium online for advice. Aphids are soft bodied so wet preservation in analytical grade ethanol is a storage good option.
I recommend 70% ethanol. But generally, it is not good to store aphids in ethanol for longer period of time (except in 99% ethanol for molecular research), because they become fragile and breakable, and easily loose some important structures e.g. setae or legs. It is good to mount them in period shorter than 6 months.
best wishes
I normally use alcohol 70% (ethanol), the only problem I can see is the change in the color, but the samples are useful for molecular analisys for long time, also is a good idea keep the samples in a cold store.
Hi Mustafa,
it depends in its future use, as stated by the other comments. For identification you should use 70% EtOH as higher concentration will render their cuticule so hard that become fragile and difficult to perform dissection for insect mounting and identification under microscope, moreover, their color (a key point in aphid identification) is lost after only 2-3 days!.
For DNA analysis it will be better to use 90-99% Ethanol, as stated, they are softbody insects that harbors a lot of water, and low ethanol will not preserve the DNA.
If you want also to perform DNA, RNA and protein analysis (ELISA) it should be better to store the aphids into Acetone (Fukatsu 1999, Mol. Ecol.;8(11):1935-45), it works really nice for aphids!, but, again their color is lost in just 1-2 days!.
TEmperature storage is also a key point, so if you could store them at 4 degrees celsius, in any of the preservatives indicated above (depending on their late use) will increase the time-lapse that you have from collection to analysis.
Hope this helps you,
Beatriz
Hi Mustafa,
When I want to save aphids for long and to prepare microscope slides I save them in a solution of Lactic acid 75% + Ethanol 85 % (1:2).
Hope this helps you,
Best wishes, Filipe
Yes, the use alcohol 70% (ethanol) and temperature cold store, It is a good books R. L. Blackman, V. F. Eastop. Aphids on the World's Crops: An Identification and Information Guide, 2nd Edition. 476 pp. ISBN: 978-0-471-85191-2
You should use 70% ethanol but their color will be disappeared after short period (1-4 days). After 1- 2 months specimens become fragile ( loose setae) and breakable ( legs). You should use 100% ethanol for molecular application.
You can use a leaf of the host plant with a damp cotton, this leaf the must continuously change. In parallel, a more complex option is the morphometry. You can make with a few aphids in each group to be used for your identification.
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