My second Entomological project has been one of the most enjoyable so far. Dmitri Logunov, Curator of Arthropods, set me to amalgamate some collections of Harvestmen (Opiliones) currently occupying 2 drawers and a jar:
Jar of mixed species Opiliones, one species per tube but! more than one tube per species.
Trays: again – one species per tube.
The original tubes had plastic caps. Labels provide taxonomy and locality information, and accession numbers which had been allocated previously.
First the Harvestmen were sorted into species. For each species:
The taxonomic name was checked using a reference text (Harvestmen by P D Hillyard (Field Studies Council, Dec 2005)).
A jar was prepared to receive all the tubes of that species by part-filling with 70% IMS solution and adding a temporary label.
Taking the first tube, the old liquid was poured out (important!) without pouring out the leggy contents.
The new alcohol solution in the jar was used to refill the tube and to wet some cotton wool to plug the tube mouth, checking no air bubbles had snuck in.
The cotton wool is pre-soaked in IMS solution to remove air bubbles.
The tube was immersed in the alcohol in the jar.
When all the tubes with that species name were in the jar, and covered by alcohol solution, the jar was sealed.
This process was repeated for each species.
Finally, label neatly and arrange in the spirit store by genus and alphabetically by species.
Some were relatively local.
Some were from further afield.
All with a story to tell (if only they weren’t pickled).
Some interlopers tried to sneak in, like this False Scorpion, labelled Neobisium carpenteri.
The finished collection of 25 species containing around 170 tubes.
Claire Miles 