I recently watched your centipede video and I enjoyed it quite a bit. What worked for me was the commentary and snippets of facts with regards to the specimen in question and its allies that you would add in as you work. Very nice. A full collection video with you talking about each of your specimens would be cool though!
I plan to make some videos talking about the specimens as examples of biological principles like evolution, natural selection, variation, distribution, etc. It would be hard to talk about each of them, I have thousands of specimens.
I think I've watched this video about 3 times now haha, I'm trying to learn as much as I can so when my leaf bugs need preserving I'll be able to do my best for them. Thank you for making this video :) (and your other insect videos are really informative, too!)
I'm new to entomology pinning, yet I have pinned a lot of butterflies and moths. I have always used the rehydration chamber method of hydrating dried specimens. I recently just got 5 dried leaf insects for a framed project I am doing, I wanted to know your process of rehydrating them. I know for beetles you can place them in a jar with if I remember correctly, some sort of Alcohol (although I may be wrong about the type of hydrating fluid.) Can you do the same with dried leaf insects or should I stick with the rehydration chamber? This video is perfect for after I hydrate them! Thank you for showing how you remove the gut, although gross it is very important for pinning them correctly.
Thanks for this helpful video! Sadly one of my leaf died naturally after 40+ eggs so i will try to prepare it (and hatch the eggs ofc). I never done this before but i dont want to just throw out its body. I am curious how it will look like.
Great video. So helpful. I have a hierodula membranacea which needs guts removed so this is helpful. You mentioned that people sometimes dye the bugs. Do you have a video for that? Also, how does the color of your phasmid hold up two years later with this technique?
I haven't made a video of the dying as I'm still experimenting to get the colors right. I will make a video about it at some point. The color of the prepared specimens has remained quite good although I expect some fading over time.
Great video! Any thoughts on preserving color in damselflies? The two that I tried preserving turn brown soon after death. Is the tissue in the abdomen rotting causing the discoloration? (I also can’t wait for more great videos!)
Odonata loose body color at death, as you have observed. I have seen specimens soaked in acetone that retained some of the color. I have not tried this myself.
It would be similar to this but you would need to stuff the abdomen to keep it from collapsing. I cover this in other videos. I will be making a video of the preparation of a Heteropteryx dilitata at some point that would apply to D. gigantea as well. It's important to work on the specimen when it is fresh. If any decomposition takes place it will not turn out as well. I keep specimens in the freezer until I am ready to work on them.
how did you achieve such a (relatively) good result with the Heteropteryx specimen in the display box? mine all turn yellow after removing the gutts and soaking them in alkohol.. a
I have experimented with using acetone to help fix the color. After cleaning the specimen I soak it in acetone briefly, maybe an hour or less as it tends to bleach out the color. That's what I did for the dilitata. Lately I have been experimenting with using an alcohol-based artist's dye which is giving good results. I will make a video about it at some point, still working out the details for best results.
@@insectsafari wow thanks for the quick answer! i didn´t even expect on at all since the video is not so new ;) i just now tried it with one of my jungle nymphs that died some days ago. after freezing it i degutted it (which went quite well) and the put it in etylalcohol for about 1 hour. i have had good results with other phasmids like extatosoma just leaving it immersed for some weeksbefore drying it. but i also had the experience of discoloration with green mantids and saginae. so i thought i just leve it for 1 hour. the result is not really satisfiing. it turned yellow and the head and legs went dark (brown-green). since i have one female more to come, i´m looking for a better solution. some people say they just degut and stuff them and let them airdry. but i don`t want to risk a brown rotten specimen. maybe dry-freezing? silica gel sand? i tried short acetone bath with mantids and they just bleached out completely...
@@matthiasbuch7930 Yes, with no solvents the green specimens will discolor badly. The green pigment does seem to wash out quickly but acetone does stiffen the chitin and I think it kills the bacteria that cause decay and discoloration. I really think the solution to the problem is using the ink to replace the color once the specimen is dry. I've even been experimenting with using the ink on faded butterfly wings with good results!
Have you ever tried freeze-drying an insect for color preservation? I've heard that preserves color better but have not seen any examples for comparison. Would that work on something like a green mantis or leaf insect? It'd be cool to see how it compares to your technique here. :0 I've also heard boiling the insect for a few minutes can 'fix' the proteins and keep the colors better, though I've only heard of it being used in conjunction with liquid preservation in alcohol rather than with pinning. Thank you for the insightful video and for trying to find better ways to preserve our little friends!
Freeze-drying is better than nothing and reduces the dark staining of decomposition but the green color is still faded considerably. I'm experimenting with using alcohol based artist dyes to restore the color in green orththopterans.
The insect was yellow when it was alive. They are usually green. If you put a green one in acetone it will turn yellow. If you don't put them in acetone or alcohol they will turn brown.
I keep dilitata as well and they do tend to discolor a lot when drying. I try to remove as much as possible from the inside using cotton swabs to clean out the inside of the head and thorax and rinse the inside with water. I also use a razor blade to make slits on the underside of the leg segments to help let the solvent inside. I've been experimenting with coloring the exterior with an alcohol based artist dye. (Jaquard Pinata brand) The exoskeleton takes the dye really well so it's just a matter of getting the right color by combining green, yellow and blue dye in different proportions. I have a mosaic gynandromorph dilitata to prepare and I will make a video of that when I get around to it.
thankyou, this video is very helpful. My P. giganteum died recently, I have kept it the freezer, and this is the most descriptive video I have found. Have you made any improvements to this tecnique since you released this video? I would relly like to preseve it as well as possible as it was a specimen I was specially attached to.
I do have some new information. I haven't yet finished a new video about it to post. An artist friend told be about an alcohol based ink which turns out to work very well for coloring faded insects. It even works on butterfly wings! I've been experimenting with the phyllium and now I leave the specimen in acetone to bleach it out before adding the color, like someone bleaching their hair before coloring. I mix the ink with denatured alcohol to dilute it and blend green, yellow and blue to get the right color. I apply it with a small paintbrush, several applications very diluted, to gradually get the desired color. The brand is Jaquard, Pinata color. I've also used it on mantids, grasshoppers and tropical cicadas.
I'm always looking for new specimens. I've been trying to locate a Gongylodes gongylus for the collection. Where do you live? I'm in Washington State USA.
insectsafari I’m in the UK, but shipping dead specimens is easy. I’ve shipped to the US many times. I can get G. gongylus very easily for you, but I do have some Toxodera that I’d love to have preserved. Maybe I could send you two, you keep one and send another back to me?
I'm happy to help but it would seem to be much easier for you to prepare your own specimen with the techniques from my videos. Did you see the mantis videos? ruclips.net/video/Z70qDzgQuxs/видео.html
insectsafari hi, unfortunately I think the specimens are too far gone now, they have dried. However, they still have their green colour and no rotting so maybe they’re salvageable. Do you have another way we can communicate?
Hey Don, You emailed me about my song. Your inbox seems to be full and I got an error message to that effect. Please let me know if you get this. - Larry Gallagher
I never seem have enough room! This is a teaching collection and the drawers are packed six in a moving box to ride in my car. Larger drawers wouldn't fit in my vehicle so perfectly like these do so the solution is just more drawers. I have about a hundred now.
I've raised hundreds of them and they are less fragile than they look. Their legs can become detached if you pull on them (by design to escape predators) so picking them up by the abdomen is the easiest way.
@@fcojaviercanellasferra2522 It's still experimental for me. The acetone kills bacteria quickly and does something to stiffen the exoskeleton. It also stiffens the leg joints, making it difficult to position. The isopropyl alcohol has some water in it so it seems to help to relax the leg joints for easier mounting.
Развлечения
Yay so so excited to see a new upload from you!!
I have a couple more in production so stay tuned.
I recently watched your centipede video and I enjoyed it quite a bit. What worked for me was the commentary and snippets of facts with regards to the specimen in question and its allies that you would add in as you work. Very nice. A full collection video with you talking about each of your specimens would be cool though!
I plan to make some videos talking about the specimens as examples of biological principles like evolution, natural selection, variation, distribution, etc. It would be hard to talk about each of them, I have thousands of specimens.
Sounds awesome. I look forward to seeing it!
I think I've watched this video about 3 times now haha, I'm trying to learn as much as I can so when my leaf bugs need preserving I'll be able to do my best for them. Thank you for making this video :) (and your other insect videos are really informative, too!)
What species do you have?
@@insectsafari i have phillium philipinicum and macleays spectre stick insects :)
Same lol I want to pin them when they go.
@@melissasyard1212 this technique worked well for phillium phillipinicum, for maclays spectre I just gave them shorter baths. :)
Excellent video
I'm new to entomology pinning, yet I have pinned a lot of butterflies and moths. I have always used the rehydration chamber method of hydrating dried specimens. I recently just got 5 dried leaf insects for a framed project I am doing, I wanted to know your process of rehydrating them. I know for beetles you can place them in a jar with if I remember correctly, some sort of Alcohol (although I may be wrong about the type of hydrating fluid.) Can you do the same with dried leaf insects or should I stick with the rehydration chamber?
This video is perfect for after I hydrate them! Thank you for showing how you remove the gut, although gross it is very important for pinning them correctly.
Thanks for this helpful video!
Sadly one of my leaf died naturally after 40+ eggs so i will try to prepare it (and hatch the eggs ofc). I never done this before but i dont want to just throw out its body. I am curious how it will look like.
Great video. So helpful. I have a hierodula membranacea which needs guts removed so this is helpful. You mentioned that people sometimes dye the bugs. Do you have a video for that? Also, how does the color of your phasmid hold up two years later with this technique?
I haven't made a video of the dying as I'm still experimenting to get the colors right. I will make a video about it at some point.
The color of the prepared specimens has remained quite good although I expect some fading over time.
Great video! Any thoughts on preserving color in damselflies? The two that I tried preserving turn brown soon after death. Is the tissue in the abdomen rotting causing the discoloration? (I also can’t wait for more great videos!)
I also forgot to ask- what live insects do you keep?
Odonata loose body color at death, as you have observed. I have seen specimens soaked in acetone that retained some of the color. I have not tried this myself.
What technique would you recommend for Diapherodes Gigantea?
It would be similar to this but you would need to stuff the abdomen to keep it from collapsing. I cover this in other videos. I will be making a video of the preparation of a Heteropteryx dilitata at some point that would apply to D. gigantea as well. It's important to work on the specimen when it is fresh. If any decomposition takes place it will not turn out as well. I keep specimens in the freezer until I am ready to work on them.
What is the liquid you used in the video
Im obsessed with you
I need to know how to hatch the eggs you took out, please message me.
How to dye them?
how did you achieve such a (relatively) good result with the Heteropteryx specimen in the display box? mine all turn yellow after removing the gutts and soaking them in alkohol.. a
I have experimented with using acetone to help fix the color. After cleaning the specimen I soak it in acetone briefly, maybe an hour or less as it tends to bleach out the color. That's what I did for the dilitata. Lately I have been experimenting with using an alcohol-based artist's dye which is giving good results. I will make a video about it at some point, still working out the details for best results.
@@insectsafari wow thanks for the quick answer! i didn´t even expect on at all since the video is not so new ;) i just now tried it with one of my jungle nymphs that died some days ago. after freezing it i degutted it (which went quite well) and the put it in etylalcohol for about 1 hour. i have had good results with other phasmids like extatosoma just leaving it immersed for some weeksbefore drying it. but i also had the experience of discoloration with green mantids and saginae. so i thought i just leve it for 1 hour. the result is not really satisfiing. it turned yellow and the head and legs went dark (brown-green). since i have one female more to come, i´m looking for a better solution. some people say they just degut and stuff them and let them airdry. but i don`t want to risk a brown rotten specimen. maybe dry-freezing? silica gel sand? i tried short acetone bath with mantids and they just bleached out completely...
@@matthiasbuch7930 Yes, with no solvents the green specimens will discolor badly. The green pigment does seem to wash out quickly but acetone does stiffen the chitin and I think it kills the bacteria that cause decay and discoloration. I really think the solution to the problem is using the ink to replace the color once the specimen is dry. I've even been experimenting with using the ink on faded butterfly wings with good results!
Have you ever tried freeze-drying an insect for color preservation? I've heard that preserves color better but have not seen any examples for comparison. Would that work on something like a green mantis or leaf insect? It'd be cool to see how it compares to your technique here. :0
I've also heard boiling the insect for a few minutes can 'fix' the proteins and keep the colors better, though I've only heard of it being used in conjunction with liquid preservation in alcohol rather than with pinning.
Thank you for the insightful video and for trying to find better ways to preserve our little friends!
Freeze-drying is better than nothing and reduces the dark staining of decomposition but the green color is still faded considerably. I'm experimenting with using alcohol based artist dyes to restore the color in green orththopterans.
@@insectsafari Interesting! Thanks for getting back to me!
Beautiful
And why you do this stick insect yellow? If i preparate it without alcohol and aceton it will be green?
The insect was yellow when it was alive. They are usually green. If you put a green one in acetone it will turn yellow. If you don't put them in acetone or alcohol they will turn brown.
@@insectsafari thankyou!
Amazing video, I have a female heteropteryx dilatata and I'm hoping to preserve her after she passes because she's beautiful. Thanks for the tips 😊
I keep dilitata as well and they do tend to discolor a lot when drying. I try to remove as much as possible from the inside using cotton swabs to clean out the inside of the head and thorax and rinse the inside with water. I also use a razor blade to make slits on the underside of the leg segments to help let the solvent inside.
I've been experimenting with coloring the exterior with an alcohol based artist dye. (Jaquard Pinata brand) The exoskeleton takes the dye really well so it's just a matter of getting the right color by combining green, yellow and blue dye in different proportions.
I have a mosaic gynandromorph dilitata to prepare and I will make a video of that when I get around to it.
I think it's brilliant that you're helping others with your knowledge. Thank you so much for your advice, your work is incredible.
@@jadelaurentrigg Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoy the videos and hope you find them useful.
thankyou, this video is very helpful. My P. giganteum died recently, I have kept it the freezer, and this is the most descriptive video I have found. Have you made any improvements to this tecnique since you released this video? I would relly like to preseve it as well as possible as it was a specimen I was specially attached to.
I do have some new information. I haven't yet finished a new video about it to post. An artist friend told be about an alcohol based ink which turns out to work very well for coloring faded insects. It even works on butterfly wings! I've been experimenting with the phyllium and now I leave the specimen in acetone to bleach it out before adding the color, like someone bleaching their hair before coloring. I mix the ink with denatured alcohol to dilute it and blend green, yellow and blue to get the right color. I apply it with a small paintbrush, several applications very diluted, to gradually get the desired color. The brand is Jaquard, Pinata color. I've also used it on mantids, grasshoppers and tropical cicadas.
idk if you check the comments after 3 years but, would this work on a mantis?
Yes, they are very similar and actually related. I have videos of preparing a mantis. ruclips.net/video/Z70qDzgQuxs/видео.html
I have some specimens I’m sure you’d be very interested in. What’s the best way to contact you?
I'm always looking for new specimens. I've been trying to locate a Gongylodes gongylus for the collection. Where do you live? I'm in Washington State USA.
insectsafari I’m in the UK, but shipping dead specimens is easy. I’ve shipped to the US many times. I can get G. gongylus very easily for you, but I do have some Toxodera that I’d love to have preserved. Maybe I could send you two, you keep one and send another back to me?
I'm happy to help but it would seem to be much easier for you to prepare your own specimen with the techniques from my videos. Did you see the mantis videos? ruclips.net/video/Z70qDzgQuxs/видео.html
insectsafari sure thing, I can do it myself, just wanted to know if you wanted them in your collection! Cheers
insectsafari hi, unfortunately I think the specimens are too far gone now, they have dried. However, they still have their green colour and no rotting so maybe they’re salvageable. Do you have another way we can communicate?
Can I replace acetone for nail polish?
Nail polish remover contains acetone so it may work but it does have other ingredients. I haven't tried it.
Very cool
So did some of the eggs prove to be viable?
There's no way to tell because I mixed them in with all the other eggs.
Hey Don, You emailed me about my song. Your inbox seems to be full and I got an error message to that effect. Please let me know if you get this. - Larry Gallagher
Hi Larry. I got your email and replied so try again.
Can you say me im not from United States ( i am from Russia) and i dont understand the name of this alcohol "ice purple alcohol " or what?
Isopropyl Alcohol, commonly used for sterilizing in medical applications.
@@insectsafari thankyou!
Your box is a bit crowded there, gotta upgrade to the giant cases
I never seem have enough room! This is a teaching collection and the drawers are packed six in a moving box to ride in my car. Larger drawers wouldn't fit in my vehicle so perfectly like these do so the solution is just more drawers. I have about a hundred now.
@@insectsafari I my goodness! I love that you have so many beautiful specimen displays I can’t wait until mine get like that! I love your videos
@@Yuckfou132 Thank you, I'm happy that you enjoy them. I will be making more videos soon. I've been a bit distracted for the past couple of years.
my heart dropped when you picked up the live one by its abdomen but I guess you know what you're doing 😅
I've raised hundreds of them and they are less fragile than they look. Their legs can become detached if you pull on them (by design to escape predators) so picking them up by the abdomen is the easiest way.
@@insectsafari That's good to know thank you :)
I'm scared walking creatures especially small moving insects.....heh
Is this liquid alcohol?
The first liquid was acetone, the second liquid was isopropyl alcohol
@@insectsafari I supose acetone is for the colour and alcohol conserve the insect.
@@fcojaviercanellasferra2522 It's still experimental for me. The acetone kills bacteria quickly and does something to stiffen the exoskeleton. It also stiffens the leg joints, making it difficult to position. The isopropyl alcohol has some water in it so it seems to help to relax the leg joints for easier mounting.
@@insectsafari Ok. I use acetone to preserve the colour of the Odonata.
Will this technique work with large stick insects as well?
So as to prevent them from losing color
@@neonx6568 Yes, I have a video of such a preparation on a large Phasmid. ruclips.net/video/4rOqxMdC6QU/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/5bpkXIn3do8/видео.html
Phasmid prep
RIP phyllium giganteum
I do have Phyllium giganteum as well but this is Phyllium philippinicum.
why am i watching this i hate insect guts so much
I seriously watched this?
Not only that, you took the time to comment.
insectsafari I’m proud
Ikr
Your hurting the animal you bastard🤬🤬
Are you on drugs it's dead