45 

 Techniques 



Adult specimens often needed to be cleaned before 

 surface structures could be studied. This was accomplished 

 by brushing the specimen with a small soft-bristle brush 

 dipped in ethyl acetate or alcohol. Ethyl acetate was also 

 used to degrease badly soiled specimens. If the mouthparts 

 were badly soiled, the specimen was dipped in warm water to 

 loosen the dirt, and to relax the specimen before brushing 

 the dirt away. On rare occasions specimens were so badly 

 soiled that they were totally relaxed, cleaned, and 

 remounted. 



European-style card mounting made it impossible to 

 study the ventral surfaces without removing the specimen 

 from the card. The solvent used to soften the glue 

 depended on what glue was used. The following series of 

 chemicals was used until one dissolved the glue: water, 70% 

 isopropanol, 80% ethanol; ethyl acetate. Rarely did the 

 specimen require treatment with all of these, but 

 occasionally a specimen needed to have the glue manually 

 removed. 



I dissected many genitalia for further study. 

 Specimens were chosen from across the distributional range 

 of the species and from those showing variation in external 

 characters. Each specimen was put into a weak solution of 

 hot detergent water and allowed to sit from one hour to 

 overnight. Once relaxed, the specimen was carefully held 

 between the thumb and forefinger under the dissecting 



