Pinning a moth

[Israel2004]

Ok, my great girlfriend caught me a male Hyalophora cecropia, Cecropia Moth (aka Robin Moth) yesterday. I'd really want to pin this awesome looking guy, but have absolutely no clue as to how to go about doing this.

Can anyone give me the run down on how to do this.

 

[David_F]

Here's how I did it for a Luna moth I caught a while back.

I used three pieces of 3/4" styrofoam to make a spreading board. The first piece was about 6" x 6", the other two were ~2" x 6". I put the two narrow pieces on top of the larger piece with a gap between them large enough for the moth's body to go in then pinned these top pieces down. I placed the moth's body in the channel and pinned it through the thorax to the lower piece of foam. Using some straight pins I spread the wings and pinned them in place on the top pieces of foam. You may need to place a pin on each side of the moth's head, not through the head, to keep it from rotating. Then I left it to dry for a few days.

It came out pretty good but I think next time I will cover the wings with paper to help keep them flat. Since they weren't covered they've become a bit misshapen....kind of like when you let wet paper dry. It would also help to use pins actually designed for insect mounts. I think they are a bit thinner than straight pins but for my purposes regular straight pins worked fine.

 

[Israel2004]

So you did something like what is shown on this site http://www.insectsinternational.com/basic_pinning.htm

 

[arachnidsrck]

i hope you wait until it dies before you do this, and not like stick it in the freezer or something, they dont eat so they only live for about 2 weeks,

 

[Israel2004]

Actually I'm going to kill it in a killing chamber, using nail polisher remove.
:evil: :evil: