Dry Mounted Insect
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:49 am
I've been toying with this idea for a "permanent" dry mount for a while. I'm not really sure how permanent this one will be, I didn't do any preparation on it besides the fact that it was trapped in my wood burning stove and had dried out on its own. I guess time will tell. I didn't use my stove this winter, it wasn't very cold and never lost power this winter. It was trapped in there with a yellow jacket and a stink bug, they must have come down the chimney, the door seals pretty good. The yellow jacket and the stink bug are too big for a mount like this.
I found these fiber gaskets or washers at my local hardware store and they are almost a perfect size. They are 1/16" (1.6mm) thick and 3/4" (19mm) diameter. First I sealed the gasket to the slide with synthetic Canada Balsam. After that dried I placed the insect in the well and sealed the cover slip to the top of the gasket. After that all dried I sealed it with black acrylic paint on my slide ringing table. I probably should have cemented the fly to the glass slide but it seems to have stayed put quite well, it fits so perfectly. A smaller specimen will need to be attached. I know this is going to be fragile with just the cover slip on top so I have to be careful of getting objectives too close. I considered flooding it with Canada Balsam or something else but that seemed like it would have problems with drying and bubbles. I have seen slides like this made by putting two concave well slides together, that looks more durable. I may try that with the proper size specimen.
Anyone have any idea what this insect is? I was thinking some kind of Mayfly but those antennae seem kind of unusual. I assume it got that downward bend from drying out. I live in the Pacific Northwest near Seattle.
I found these fiber gaskets or washers at my local hardware store and they are almost a perfect size. They are 1/16" (1.6mm) thick and 3/4" (19mm) diameter. First I sealed the gasket to the slide with synthetic Canada Balsam. After that dried I placed the insect in the well and sealed the cover slip to the top of the gasket. After that all dried I sealed it with black acrylic paint on my slide ringing table. I probably should have cemented the fly to the glass slide but it seems to have stayed put quite well, it fits so perfectly. A smaller specimen will need to be attached. I know this is going to be fragile with just the cover slip on top so I have to be careful of getting objectives too close. I considered flooding it with Canada Balsam or something else but that seemed like it would have problems with drying and bubbles. I have seen slides like this made by putting two concave well slides together, that looks more durable. I may try that with the proper size specimen.
Anyone have any idea what this insect is? I was thinking some kind of Mayfly but those antennae seem kind of unusual. I assume it got that downward bend from drying out. I live in the Pacific Northwest near Seattle.