Spring Bugs

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TonyT
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Location: New Brunswick, CANADA

Spring Bugs

#1 Post by TonyT » Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:14 pm

Weather-wise it's more like Winter, snowing heavily now.
Beneath he garden's south facing cedar hedge there was (on March 30) a narrow strip of snow-free litter; remainer of garden beneath 2' of snow!
Using a Berlese funnel I extracted several small critters into alcohol (unfortunately no other way to sample using a Berlese for the very small stuff).
reversed 28mm 'regular' lens on a bellows, Nikon D720.
The bigger bugs included a small fly, a small beetle, and a small spider:
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30iii23-2 fly.jpg
30iii23-2 fly.jpg (90.3 KiB) Viewed 1210 times
1iv23-1 beetle.jpg
1iv23-1 beetle.jpg (108.19 KiB) Viewed 1210 times
30iii23-1 spider 768px.jpg
30iii23-1 spider 768px.jpg (116.4 KiB) Viewed 1210 times
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TonyT
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:30 pm
Location: New Brunswick, CANADA

Re: Spring Bugs

#2 Post by TonyT » Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:32 pm

More specimens from same litter sample: hairy-winged wasps, 3 spiders, larva of a biting midge(Ceratopogonidae) - when I first photographed one of these I had it upside down, this one is correct (length is 1.66 mm).
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1iv23-2 wasps 68.jpg
1iv23-2 wasps 68.jpg (113.6 KiB) Viewed 1156 times
1iv23-4 spiders 768.jpg
1iv23-4 spiders 768.jpg (70.05 KiB) Viewed 1156 times
1iv23-3 cerat larva 768.jpg
1iv23-3 cerat larva 768.jpg (63.53 KiB) Viewed 1156 times
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shutterbug
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Re: Spring Bugs

#3 Post by shutterbug » Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:55 pm

Very interesting work!! Thanks for sharing!

I've collected a few bugs in alcohol but I stopped doing that because the wax film on their exoskeleton starts to flake off and 'collect' in some places and it's almost impossible to get rid of that afterwards. Now I only use water and detergent (dish soap) which works really well for collecting but it does not perverse them unless you dry them quickly.

Did you mount yours on a slide or fix them to a plate for photography?

TonyT
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Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:30 pm
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Re: Spring Bugs

#4 Post by TonyT » Mon Apr 03, 2023 12:45 pm

I have never noticed any problem with alcohol: used Ethyl, Methyl, and IsoPropyl.
One advantage of collecting in alcohol is that specimens can be rinsed in clean 99% IsoPropyl and the mounted directly in Euparal, or cleared in cedarwood oil and mounted in Canada balsam.
Glycerin can be used as a 'collecting' liquid and specimens can be stored in it. Auto antifreeze - Ethylene Glycol, or Propylene glycol, can also be used and they also preserve specimens.

For the above specimens, some were dry (the 3 spiders), some mounted in Euparal, some in glycerin.
Another simple method I use is to dehydrate the specimen and mount in cedarwood oil under a coverslip. Such a slide can be re-used.

I now very rarely make permanent slides as I have over 2,000 (mostly moth dissections) that I have made over the years!
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TonyT
Posts: 184
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:30 pm
Location: New Brunswick, CANADA

Re: Spring Bugs

#5 Post by TonyT » Mon Apr 03, 2023 12:57 pm

Moth genitalia mounted yesterday in Cedarwood Oil, on a slide beneath coverslip. Just a temporary mount.
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2iv23-2 6797.jpg
2iv23-2 6797.jpg (118.08 KiB) Viewed 1103 times
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shutterbug
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Re: Spring Bugs

#6 Post by shutterbug » Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:18 pm

Thanks for the info!

Awesome slide, really fantastic work!! :)

I've had the problem that the wax (for example on bees or stink bugs starts to flake off as yellowish-white flakes but I guess that's because they were stored too long in alcohol and that started to interact.
The only way to remove that wax was soaking them in some very aggressive solvent like lighter fluid and even that takes a long time. With dish-soap I'm drying the insects afterwards or directly mount them in PVC glue for temporary mounts.

But your method is of course professional - as can be seen by the results! :)

dtsh
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Re: Spring Bugs

#7 Post by dtsh » Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:44 am

shutterbug wrote:
Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:18 pm
Thanks for the info!

Awesome slide, really fantastic work!! :)

I've had the problem that the wax (for example on bees or stink bugs starts to flake off as yellowish-white flakes but I guess that's because they were stored too long in alcohol and that started to interact.
The only way to remove that wax was soaking them in some very aggressive solvent like lighter fluid and even that takes a long time. With dish-soap I'm drying the insects afterwards or directly mount them in PVC glue for temporary mounts.

But your method is of course professional - as can be seen by the results! :)
I'm far from knowledgeable on the topic and still learning, but would a pass in 5% or 10% KOH help?

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shutterbug
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Re: Spring Bugs

#8 Post by shutterbug » Tue Apr 04, 2023 7:55 am

That's a great question! I've never tried that but I happen to have some potent Na2CO3 solution which I'm going to try should that happen again.

TonyT
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Re: Spring Bugs

#9 Post by TonyT » Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:50 pm

I am still getting specimens from my litter sample:
another spider. dry
Globular Springtail, temporary mount in PVA-borax - no coverslip.
Attachments
2iv23-3 spider.jpg
2iv23-3 spider.jpg (119.7 KiB) Viewed 1024 times
2iv23-4 springtail.jpg
2iv23-4 springtail.jpg (91.47 KiB) Viewed 1024 times
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