Bufonidae Specimen Box (or, 'what i actually put in my sealed mahogany box')

[Lord Croker]

One of the local musuems (the appropriately named Queen Victoria Museum) uses beetles to clean bones.

The QVM Zoology Department has over the years developed an extensive reference collection of vertebrate skeletal material. Cleaning these skeletons can be a very messy, time-consuming and often fiddly process, unless the 'zoology assistants' happen to be Dermestes maculatus (Coleoptera :Dermestidae).

For over 20 years, these nondescript little black beetles and their voracious larvae have been harnessed to clean all manner of vertebrate carcasses, from bats, small birds and snakes through to bits of whales. Dermestes require dried material to feed on and this is facilitated by removing the major muscle masses and organs from specimens before air-drying.

Beetle colonies are kept in 600 x 600 x 1200 mm stainless steel tanks, each closed with a close-fitting perspex lid. The bottom of each tank is covered by a layer of raw wool 80 -100 mm thick in which the beetles pupate. (When the tanks were cleaned two years ago, the bedding in each started out as three fresh sheep-skins from the local meatworks!)

Since the beetles prefer to work in low light conditions, the tank lids were covered with black plastic leaving only meshed ventilation holes. The adult beetles are ungainly fliers but they reach the ventilation mesh occasionally, necessitating three or four sharp raps on the lid to dislodge them before the tanks are opened.

The 'Beetle Room' is bare except for essential gear, and is painted white so that would-be escapees have nowhere to hide. Clinical the decor may be, but it also makes it easier to control the Cupboard Spider (Steatoda livens) which can be a predator of Dermestes.

Over five or six weeks, the larvae feed voraciously and grow to hairy behemoths of 15 mm in length before they pupate. We sometimes segregate the smaller, more delicate vertebrate specimens with a limited number of early instar larvae. Later instars en masse can quickly disarticulate a skeleton completely and scatter the bones, making them difficult to find amongst the frass and exuviae. Colony activity is maintained year-round by keeping the 'Beetle Room' at a constant 24ºC. Beyond this, the only control on beetle populations is food: the more they're fed, the more beetles there are. When specimens are few, a 'skeleton staff' can be easily maintained with dried lamb scraps or butcher's bones.

Charlie

[juxtimon]

sorry for my slow responses at the moment- i'm in the middle of a house move which is taking way longer than i ever expected   its all good though

thanks for the compliments everyone

silk worms tend to just be kept in bottles of formalin or mounted onto a glass slide which is kept in a bottle of formalin. either that or dried out and placed in a frame with a dessicant cube.  have you got any pictures of the silk worm? its a lot easier to come up with ideas if you can see the main ingredients.

dermestid beetles are awesome at cleaning skeletons. i'ld love to have a colony of them myself for cleaning up beasties... but i'm scared of accidentally introducing them into my house, where they will eat any organic materials that they get their hands on... eeew

[polyphemus]

referencing the communique from the museum: "frass and exuviae". Such lovely words.

[Lord Croker]

dermestid beetles are awesome at cleaning skeletons. i'ld love to have a colony of them myself for cleaning up beasties... but i'm scared of accidentally introducing them into my house, where they will eat any organic materials that they get their hands on... eeew

Maybe get some cupboard spiders?

C.

[WisconsinPlatt]

where they will eat any organic materials that they get their hands on... eeew

And between them and the objects they clean they tend to be noxious to the olfactory senses.  (A biologist I knew had to choose between his beetles and his wife due to this.  Last I heard, the wife had won)

[Gazongola]

Where do I get formalin? I will post pictures soon.

[Lord Croker]

A biologist I knew had to choose between his beetles and his wife due to this.  Last I heard, the wife had won

But should he ever need to get rid of the wife...

Where do I get formalin? I will post pictures soon.

Last time I bought any I got it from a pharmacy (chemist) shop. These days I'd just get some from work, we buy it in bulk from agricultural suppliers. Its used to treat foot-rot in sheep and to preserve milk for calves. The stuff is so noxious the thought of feeding it to animals makes me gag. Its sold as either formaldehyde 33% or formalin. Its the same thing, (usually) 33% formaldehyde in water. You then dilute it assuming that its pure, so if something says 10% formalin, its really 3.3% formaldehyde.

Its really unpleasant stuff. Try not to get it on your skin or breathe the fumes. I was trained in a time when bathing in the stuff was the norm for marine biologists like myself. Several of my colleagues have developed sensitivities to it, and its now regarded as one of the more dangerous chemicals in our labs.

Charlie

[Gazongola]

They don't sell it at the chemists near me, but I will ask around. Would surgical spirit do the job?

[Lord Croker]

Assuming surgical spirit is what we call methylated spirit (ethanol with about 10% methanol added) yes it would be fine for preserving insects. We use it a lot for invertebrates, also for fish after they have been fixed in formalin. Its very much safer and less noxious to work with. Technically it is a fire hazard at 30% or more, which causes us hassles in the larger fish collections, but a small volume of it is regarded as safe in labs.

Insects tend not to be very meaty, so 30% surgical spirit in water would be fine. You'd probably even get away with 10%. You may have to change the solution after a while if the insect is very fatty, the fat can soak out and make the alcohol go cloudy.

Charlie

[juxtimon]

yup, meths would work pretty well... formalin 38% solution can be bought mail order from snowdonia taxidermy supplies in wales... erm http://freespace.virgin.net/sts.northwales/cps.htm

you can pick up all sorts of cool things from them, borax for dessicating creatures, taxidermy glass eyes, skeletal bleach... its a veritable aladdin's cave of useful chemicals

[Gazongola]

Ooh. I shall look. No, meths only comes in purple round here. Surgical spirit is an alcohol based antiseptic that is strong alcohol basically. If all else fails, vodka.

[Commander Obadiah]

You can strain the blue/purple dye out with a piece of bread. Boiling the resulting solution with an apparatus to collect the steam results in a solution of methanol in the original container, and pure alcohol in the steam-collecting-apparatus. This alcohol is very potent, and should not be drunk straight. That being said, it's perfect for spiking other drinks, as you only need a very, very small amount (thimblefull per litre has been the best in my experience) to make a solution that smells normal but can still get someone drunk. This is all by the by, as you and I will only be using the pure alcohol to preserve dead animals.

*coughs*

Commander C. Obadiah

[Gazongola]

I do not think I will be distilling anytime soon. I feel that it would not be a good idea.

[Gazongola]

I have a picture of my specimen, awaiting suggestions.

[Reverend Redmond Farrier]

Thread necromancy time!  I was recently reminded of this thread while collecting items for my wunderkammer.  This is a wonderful piece of art you have created.  I will be working on my own version of this (modified so as not to be a total rip off of your work) using a common fowler's toad that I recently processed.  It is not as complete as yours though.  I left the skeleton in the ant bed overnight and they cleaned it a little too well.  They made off with both front feet, the little buggers.    I was tempted to see if you had a digital copy of the pamphlet since they took most of the tissue keeping the bones together too.  I probably got a few bones out of place.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When the piece is done, I will start another thread for it.  I only wanted to post here so as to give honor to the inspiration for my project.

Rev. R. Farrier

[Capt. Dirigible]

That is amazing. Looks like it's come straight out of the Grant Museum at UCL

[David Godfrey Esq.]

On the Formalin vs. Industrial Alcohol decision, the modern practice is to use alcohol, DNA is destroyed in formalin, which has rendered a large number of important historical collections  from the late 19th and early 20th century useless for modern analysis, while earlier specimens (those from Darwin's Beagle voyage, and similar) far more useful.

And yes, it does look like it came from the Grant Museum. (Wonderful place that).

[JennyWren]

Lovely piece of work, my harty congratulations on its completion