Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Storing flies in alcohol

Posted by Tony Irwin on 23-10-2007 14:20
#30

Adrian wrote:
So presumably the microvial has to be secured somehow inside the specimen tube, in a way where it will not move, there are no dead spaces into which the specimen can move, and in which both it and the specimen can easily be removed for examination.
How is this done?

It can be held in place with a rolled-up piece of tissue, at the bottom of the tube. To examine it, you remove the fly from the tube, then remove the microvial, then open the microvial and get the genitalia out. (It is tedious - and is one of the reasons why long-term storage of reference material is better as pinned specimens.)