Caterpillar inflation is a method of specimen preservation found in insect collecting, used mostly during the 19th and early 20th century.[1]
As a method of preservation it has largely been replaced by freeze drying and preservation in alcohol.[1] In some cases caterpillar inflation offers better colour retention than preservation in alcohol, although the rise of colour photography rendered this less important.[1]
A limitation of the technique was that it could produce poor results, in the form of oversized and distended specimens with poor colour, especially if carried out when the caterpillar was moulting or about to undergo pupation.[2]
Colour retention was not always perfect and some collectors painted or dyed their inflated specimens although water colours could distort the skin.[2]
- ^ a b c Gibb, Timothy J; Oseto, Christian (2006). Arthropod Collection and Identification: Laboratory and Field Techniques. Academic Press. p. 67. ISBN 0123695457.
- ^ a b Hammond, H. E (1960). "Preservation of larvae by inflation and heat-drying" (PDF). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 14 (1): 67–78. Retrieved 26 March 2017.