Dipt.Forum. Bull. No:-97

Boyd, has very kindly lent me a number of his marvelously fabricated items to trial and comment on. Here are my thoughts so far.

Pooter: I was an instant convert! I purchased a large barrel type – 150ml length barrel. It is marvelous. It’s easy to dismantle and clean and it’s very easy to see what you have captured inside the clear glass barrel. The suction is excellent and even quite large flies are readily pooted into the 6mm diameter inlet tube I chose. 

Dissecting instruments: The brass handled dissecting needles are particularly effective. Compared to the micro pin stuck into a match stick or similar that most of us use, the brass handled needles make easy work of pulling apart genitalia. I have used them with Hilara and Lonchaeidae. I would imagine they are equally effective with other Diptera family genitalia. They are also very good to hold and a nice weight. I have needles in 0.5 and 1mm diameter and these easily cope with delicate work that I would usually use an “A”or “B” sized pin for. The main advantage of the brass handled needles is that they do not flex as a micropin would, and thus can easily tear apart or remove bits of unwanted tissue and fatty residues. When using micropins I have often found this taxing and frustrating work. 

Carbon injector. Co2 can be used to immobilise or euthanise insects. A short blast will immobilise them very quickly – just  a few seconds. Whereas a longer blast of Co2, followed by a long period left inside the container (sealed) will euthanise insects. I have heard from Dipterists that heads are less prone to collapsing so that specimens killed with Co2 are better preserved in shape. I have used an ancient Sparklets cork remover purchased off ebay to good effect, but it is quite bulky and weighty. Boyd has developed a neat little injector that takes Co2 canisters that can be ordered from Amazon. The injector is relatively small and light, so is easy to carry in the field inside an entomologists  kit bag. Boyd has also fabricated fittings that allow the injector to be securely attached to the brass pooters described above. The injector works best with smaller barrel pooters. I found that a hefty amount of Co2 is needed to properly knock down flies inside my large 150ml barrel. The smallest flies recover most quickly, in as little as a few seconds, so experimentation is required to work out amounts of Co2 and length of exposure that will achieve a good “knock-down”time.