SZ Tale 07 - Insect Preservation Workshop

Zoo started with booth training again as a recap in preparation for the test 2 weeks later. Then a debrief before we attended an insect preservation workshop. Lots of hands-on as my friends chose various types of insects to preserve.

This is a Jungle Nymph Walking Stick. It is one of the most troublesome to preserve insect because there is a lot of stuff you have to dig out (obvious from its size). After you clear out the intestine and eggs etc, you pad the insect with cotton and formulant before you are done.


(Psst, fyi, many phasmids - stick and leaf insects - are able to reproduce parthenogenetically if males are absent, producing all-female offspring and thus enabling the species to survive)

Other insects preserved include the horn beetles, hissing cockroaches and scorpion...

As well as butterflies. They are the least troublesome as you just need to pry open their wings if they are still "fresh" and do some arrangment.


(Psst... This is the beautiful Taiwanese Tree Nymph. The caterpillar has a marshmallow feel touch and is poisonous when eaten.)

Else if they have been kept too long and are too dried already, you can just pin them with their folded wings.


(Psst.. This is the Common Rose Butterfly... which is not at all common I think because you can't find it in the Zoo... sob sob...)

Oh and I chose to work on the butterflies hahaha..