Dung Beetle - Phanaeus pilatei

Believe it or not, I gave this beetle a bath before I took this photo. It was so dirty! But, I think I didn't let it dry long enough because it fell apart after I took this photo.

*Pinned specimen; native to Central America

comments (3)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Very nice extension of this genus coverage!

Not sure what your bath procedure was but I used to submerge specimens for long durations and learned that for big fat beetles it's a bad idea. They fill up internally with water, which weakens them, plus it might then keep ejecting all kinds of new dirt from their insides.

What works reasonably well for me for a subject like this:
- Grab with pincers and submerge in warmish water with dish soap, then rock back and forth as strongly as the subject allows for. This removes the loose dirt.
- For the type of dirt seen in the grooves, it's stuck and won't come of without rubbing. I use a small paint brush, sometimes just with water, sometimes with alcohol.

Some specimens simply are in a bad state though and may fall apart anyway. Posted 2 years ago
1. Christine Young
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks for the tips! I should have tried alcohol!
  
  The "bath" just consisted of my using a paintbrush with very diluted soapy water to gently scrub some of the crud off. It wasn't in great condition and I was afraid to get it too wet. But, I think it was inevitable that any water would turn it to mush. I wish I had taken a pre-bath photo, though, because it was SO incredibly filthy.
  
  It was kind of funny how it happened. I was just trying to turn the pin to get a profile shot when it fell apart and I yelled, "Oh no!". Meanwhile, Dave was working from home and in a meeting so his whole lab heard me yelling about my broken dead beetle, lol. Oops. Posted 2 years ago, modified 2 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Dave's coworkers hearing in the background: "I'm OK though! Only the head fell off. This time". Posted 2 years ago