danaus chrysippus - first spread

Hi Artemis,

For first time it is good enough :-)
But the posterior margin of forewings have to form at least a rightangle with the body, or rather set up it a little bit more upwards, than the rightangle :-)
K

There are several positions used when mounting lepidopetra, whether it be for a synoptic/museum research specimen, display in a "for show" collection, in a natural pose under glass dome, etc. What you choose to use for your purpose is what is right for you.

No doubt many of us started with simple tools to do so, including styrofoam blocks, kitchen wax paper and whatever pins we could find in Mom's sewing basket. My very first with straight pins or needles before I found and bought insect pins. For your Riker mounts good enough. Sooner or later some go all the way with home made or store bought adjustable boards of various sizes. I took mine a step farther by covering them with thin galvanized sheets and used light weigth pliable magnetic strips from office supply houses cut to various sizes to hold eveything in place instead of pins using tweezers to place them, home made stylis to postion with (headless insect pins in small dowel handles styraight and bent at several angles). Fast and easy to set or adjust with no damage, fast to remove and with all materials reuseable for decades.

Too bad I didn't find this site sooner than I did... I threw all my mounting, rearing, collecting equipment and supplies away a little over a couple of years ago (except for one net). Had dozens of mounting boards, hundreds of rearing and field collecting cages, and other equipment I custom made, etc over my about 45 active years doing Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

A bent shoulder can't be fixed properly, it is a common mistake one does in the beginning. It isn't a bad thing that you did that mistake as you know now how it looks like. I try to avoid this problem by making sure that the butterfly is well relaxed before mounting it and then also grabbing the base of the wings with flat forceps and moving the wing a bit up and down by applying pressure on that spot before trying to fully mount it. Having a spreading board with a groove that matches exactly the body of the butterfly also helps to prevent this.

Mounting butterflies is a matter of practice.

Another important thing to do is to cover the outer edges of the wings especially as it dries or else they will curl upwards. Not bad for your first time though. It just takes practice.

Another little trick if the groove of your board is too wide and the whole body begins to rotate as you move one side, stick two pins into the groove, one on each side of the abdomen as close to the thorax as you can get them to fix the abdomen in place.

As well as 2 pins on either side of the base of the abdomen I also put a pin right in the 'shoulder' at the base of the forewing on the opposite side to the first forewing that I will move up into place. This stops the body in front of the pin from moving away when I move the forewing up. I remove these 3 pins after finishing the spreading process and before I cross-pin under the abdomen to stop it from drooping as the butterfly dries.

I actually don't like to use a tight fitting groove, because legs can break off the dry specimen when removing it from the board if the groove is really tight.

Also I recommend using your thumbnail to pinch the thorax immediately below the base of the wings on each side before starting to spread the specimen. This loosens the wing muscles and helps prevent bending of the forewing.

Adam.

It's dried, papered specimens that require a lot of practice.

I'm speaking for myself but it took me many years to get to results I really wanted so it's not just matter of setting 10- 20 butterflies and be an expert already . There are tons of things that can go wrong during spreading and little details that you have to consider or correct on the fly without damaging specimens. Placement of pins to help stabilize the specimen during spreading, how to be aware at all times where your fingers are, how much pressure to apply with your instruments not to rub off scales or make holes. It's really more an art form than just skill.

You will also find certain species/genus aren't as easy to spread as others and you have to anticipate this. In the case of small Danaids like D. chrysippus they DO tend to have bent shoulders if your not careful. It still happens to me and difficult to prevent

Also for the "bent shoulder" thing, another thing that is helpful is that when viewed from the side, the butterfly should be at a slight angle with the head higher than the abdomen. and pins should be place on both sides of the head to stabilize the specimen when you pull on the forewings to raise them

If I look at the specimen you spread again, as mentioned you need a lot more pins closer to the edges the wings to prevent them from slipping, and those 2 pins you placed below the forewings could have damaged the specimen if the wings slipped further down. You also need pins to place the head straight and correctly rotated, the antennae and the abdomen in the proper alignment with the thorax.

there are a few "must do's" when new to spreading/setting butterflies and moths, firstly to make sure that the pin is inserted into the thorax of the specimen exactly straight and that the pin is then inserted into the centre of the groove of the board dead centre as possible. If the pin is crooked it makes a neat final position almost impossible. Also make sure once the specimen is positioned on the board that the height of the specimen is right, too high or too low on the board will give bent wings,tears when moving the wings and a ragged looking final result. If all this is well then spreading can start on the right foot, trying to alter the height after the job is finished can prove a disaster.