Giant water bug!! 5<> inch wingspan

[Ted]

This was suggested to me by the curator of the OSU arthropod museum. He said the dragonfly people do it to help preserve the color of their specimens (they just soak overnight).

I tried it with an adult H. laoticus scorpion, and it worked great. As far as I can tell it liquifies their insides and draws everything out, so there's nothing inside them to rot. Since acetone replaces the water they dry out quite effectively.

I wouldn't recommend it for particularly soft-bodied arthropods, and you have to pose them before you soak them.

With scorpions it even leaves their exo intact enough to still fluoresce.

ive tried it with dragonflies, with limited success, especially with red ones.
i havent hd any problems drying large inverts, i just relax them, mount them, and dry them out..so far no probs.
the only problem inverts for me are large soft bodied spiders.
those take a bit of work.