In this blog post, you will find a video and useful tips to perfectly mount butterflies.
Why you should learn how to mount a butterfly ?
Mounting a butterfly is a key technique you must masterize in order to build a nice insect collection. Knowing how to spread butterfly will be very useful :
– to spread the butterfly you collect yourself,
– to buy papered butterflies which are cheaper than spread butterflies
– to display a collection with perfectly spread butterflies.
It is not an easy technique but with a bit of practice, you will rapidly masterize it.
Which material do you need to spread a butterfly ?
To spread butterflies, you need the following material :
– a spreading-board,
– entomological forceps,
– entomological pins,
– glassine pinning strips,
– a fresh or well-relaxed butterfly.
How to mount a butterfly ?
The various steps to spread a butterfly
- check that the butterfly is fresh or well-relaxed. Fresh butterflies have been caught within the day. Well-relaxed butterflies have been placed in a rehydrating chamber for few days. To check if they are relaxed enough, try to open their wings completely with a forcep. If wings are not flexible enough, don’t try to spread that butterfly, you would ruin it !
- take the butterfly between thumb and index and introduce a stainless entomological pin of appropriate size right through the center of the thorax perpandiculary to his body
- place the butterfly in the center of the spreading board groove
- push the wings towards the board and maintain them by pinning a glassine strip above and below the wings.
- with a forcep or a very thin entomological pin, push the forewing up, in order to have a perfect 90-degree angle between the body and the inner margin of the forewing,
- same method to push the hindwing up,
- maintain the wings by pinning a glassine strip around them,
- once spread, keep the spreading board in a dry room for 3 weeks,
- remove the pins and glassine strips after 3 weeks,
- put the butterfly 3 days into the freezer before adding it to your collection (dermestidae may have lay eggs on your specimen during the 3-week drying time).
How to spread a butterfly in video
There are several videos of butterfly mounting on Youtube. Some are good, some are very bad … this one is excellent and will help you understand the various steps of butterfly spreading :
4 key rules to remember to perfectly spread a butterfly
1/ use a well-relaxed butterfly,
2/ pin it perpandiculary to its body,
3/ the forewing inner margin must make a 90-degree angle with the body,
4/ never pin the wings ! It would make some awful little holes in the butterfly wings.
Mounting of an Agrias phalcidon fournierae female
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