Dry Mounting and Pinning a Dead Scorpion

[Kruggar]

Hey everyone, my buddy gave me a dead B. Jacksoni recently. I nabbed a few pics of the pinning process and thought I'd share the how-to.

First off you will need:
-a block of styrofoam (at least 1 in thick)
-lots of pins (varied length helps)
-cotton ball
-crazy glue
-a small scalpel or nail sizzors
-tweezers
-lots of cotton-swabs
-paper towel/rags
-acetone ( in a shallow container)
-patience...

PREP:
First off I pin a plastic bag to the styrofoam to stop it from getting dirty. I have all my tools handy, esp the PT or rags.

Removing the innards:
1. lay the soft/thawed scorp on the foam and use several pins to hold it firmly in place (don't pin through but place a pin on either side of it.

2. I wont show any pics of the next step, but you use a knife to slice open the side.

3. Using tweezers and cotton swabs scoop it all out, Right up into the head. You want to make the inside as clean as possible. I wipe everything off on a PT and rags at this stage.

Here's the gutted scorp:

4. Put your acetone into container now, or it will evaporate. Add the scorp and soak it thoroughly.

5.Shake out all the acetone from inside the scorp and place back onto the pinning foam.

6. I put a pin between each leg to hold it in place for the next stage.

These two on the jaws stop them from coming out too far when you stuff the cotton inside.

More to follow soon...

 

[Hendersoniana]

Thats really neat! Do keep us posted! I have always wanted to preserve my scorps, but i only have kept their molts so far.

 

[Michiel]

For the record, that's Hadrurus arizonensis and not Babycurus jacksoni

 

[zonbonzovi]

Hey Richard- I met a guy at BugBlast that was leaving his deadstock pinned upside down in acetone for a week at a time. They were unreal. True spiders and other soft-bodied creatures had virtually no discoloration and retained their shape well. Haven't tried it yet but it looks very promising...

 

[Kruggar]

LOL! yes this is a desery hairy! my bad.

John: did this guy gut or stuff in any way?

On with the post!

7. I take small wads of cotton and stuff the scorp right full.

Here is the scorpion stuffed:

8. I put a row of pins temporarily in order to stop a distortion of shape when i glue the side shut.

9. Pushing the cotton down with one finger add a few drops of crazy glue. The plastic also helps if you accidentally drip some (stops the scorp from sticking too bad)

10. removed some pins and added some to both sides to straighten out abdomen and keep it compressed.

Next the claws!

---------- Post added 10-06-2011 at 10:07 AM ----------

The Claws!


1. I added the blue pins to hold the first two segments forward enough, symmetry is important.

2. two more to open the arms out, see how the two pins force against each other. At any stage you can move pins to adjust the overall look. With a soft foam you don't even have to remove to adjust, just give it a push sideways.

3. third pair, just working one joint at a time, there should be enough pressure that they cant slide up or down, and should be elevated enough above the mounting foam.

4. last few pins to hold the claws themselves steady.

Now i always like to have one open and one closed for ideal reference of both.
5. that is done by placing pins on angle to slide various parts up or down as desired.
This one took 4 new pins to hold the claw open:

and this one took 3, one to hold the overall arm high enough, two to keep the claw closed:

You can see how using triangles to trap parts is the most effective use of your pins.

Here is the scorpion as we have it now.

Next the tail!



---------- Post added 10-06-2011 at 10:38 AM ----------

The Tail.
Probably the most straight forward. I like the tail curled flat to one side to conserve space, It would be possible to have pose it above the scorp but that might take a little bent wire, as this would get in the way of posing the legs. Scientific posing keeps the tail straight for measuring purposes.

I wont go through all the steps. I usually start with the pin on the stinger to keep the tail curled. Then work my way back from the body, one segment at a time, just like the claws. Don't be afraid to use to many pins, but eventually you'll realize that only a few will actually be touching what you want to move.

Okay next is the legs. Which is the hardest to pose, because all the joints are above the mounting board.
silver pins this time, so you can ignore the rest.

1. I start by placing one pin behind each leg tight against the body. This separates the legs nicely and hold the body in place.

2.Again working away from the body one joint at a time.

You can see why this takes 3 or four pins to hold this joint up. You need the ones on top because sometimes the trying process causes the legs to raise. you want them pinned good.

3. I add three more pins each leg to place them where i want, again symmetry here is important.

4. I do the same for each pair working my way to the small front ones. Here you can see that I started using less and less pins to do the job. Each leg is being held up at the body, down at the first joint up at the second then down at the tip. All these fighting pressures make for a stable leg. You can see well on the right leg, third from front (second last).

5. I added some of these black pins to add stability to the legs. (black because they are longer and can get past all the current pins)

The mandibles.
again i try to have one open and one closed. but not to the extremes. just enough to see the difference. This took 4 pins as you can see.

And finally Here is the amazing pin cushion. All in all this process to this point took about an hour. It took about 7 minutes to tease out the mandibles and get them looking like i wanted. and sometimes the legs will do something that you don't want them to. Sometimes a smaller scorp is easier and doesn't need to be gutted. Other times the larger ones hit the foam in the pose you want. I'd suggest that everyone who is interested give it a try.

Keep this pinned like this for several weeks. Until completely dry. If you cleaned out the inside well enough and gave it a good soak in acetone, your scorpion shouldn't stink. This one only had a bit of a fishy smell for about a day.
When it is time to remove the pins, I'd hope it would be logical to remove them in the opposite order that you placed them.
Good luck everyone, I hope this helps.

Cheers for now,
Kruggar.

 

[zonbonzovi]

John: did this guy gut or stuff in any way?

He claimed not to have, but he wasn't really working with large bodied arthropods either. Thanks for posting the entire process that you're using. It's amazing how many different preservation methods there are that yield similar results.

 

[pa3k_87]

Wow this looks awesome!

My adult male Pandinus imperator died a few months back and I also mounted it. I used almost the same methods as you did. Instead of just acetone, I soaked him first in a super-saturated saline solution after I gutted him to draw out more of the excess scorp juice. Being a big scorp, there was plenty of it, even after the gutting process. Then I soaked it in 50% alcohol with cloves, then 75% with cloves. I've heard somewhere that cloves keeps bugs out, so I just added it in. Then inserted a pipe cleaner so I can bend the tail in place, and stuffed the abdomen with cotton and more cloves. I placed a lot of pins around its body to hold it in place and to position it. Then I dried it under the sun for about 4 days, and kept it in a dry place in my room for a few more weeks before framing it.



The second one is the molted skin of my female Grammostola pulchripes. This was way harder to mount as it was more delicate. I wasn't as successful in my first attempt to mount a molt from my Brachypelma smithi, that's why I didnt frame it. Hopelly, I'll get some T's to molt again soon so I can keep on practicing.