InsectNet forum

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me why Morphinae specimens are sod without abdomens? Supposedly, the abdomens of this group extract some oil, greasing the wings. I remember my grandfather's collection, where all Morpinae (about 100+ years old) retain their abdomens. I can't check now if their abdomens were degreased and re-attached. Old Morpho specimens, collected by Le Moult and others, are also auctioned with abdomens intact.  I also can't figure out how to spread a papered butterfly without an abdomen. Moreover, I think a butterfly without an abdomen looks rather ugly.
Please advise

Morpho abdomens are always removed in the field to prevent grease from the abdomen spreading to the wings, althought this is ususally only done for males, as females aren't prone to greasing. Reliable suppliers will supply the abdomens separately so they can be degreased and reattached afterwards, although far too many don't bother anymore. It's much easier to degrease the abdomen alone than the whole specimen.

I'm not sure why you would have a problem spreading a specimen witout an abdomen.

Just how prevalent is this, or are we preventing something rare. For example, if you have 100 male morphos with abdomens, how many grease up eventually? 10%? 50%? All?

If a specimen gets grease stained, and you degrease the entire butterfly, the color remains intact right? So what’s the problem with just leaving the abdomen on and dealing with grease if it actually occurs?

eurytides wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2025 10:41 pm Just how prevalent is this, or are we preventing something rare. For example, if you have 100 male morphos with abdomens, how many grease up eventually? 10%? 50%? All?

If a specimen gets grease stained, and you degrease the entire butterfly, the color remains intact right? So what’s the problem with just leaving the abdomen on and dealing with grease if it actually occurs?

As someone with extensive experience here (not with Morphos, but many others), let me tell you, a greased butterfly/moth (before spreading) is a show-stopper. The wings will stick and rub and smear scales and possibly rip with the sticky oils underneath the glassine strips or glass plates. If you have an already-spread specimen that greases, that's no biggie, you soak the whole thing in a pot of mineral spirits for a week or two, but a papered specimen oiling up is an unmitigated disaster. You can't soak it in solvent and then relax and spread it, as the solvent alters the structure of the thoracic muscles and often makes them completely stiff and immobile.

I'm not sure exactly how many get greased, but I think the majority do.

bobw wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2025 9:09 am Reliable suppliers will supply the abdomens separately so they can be degreased and reattached afterwards, although far too many don't bother anymore.

It seems to me that 'therein lies the problem'.
Local collectors and suppliers need to be taught NOT to throw away the abdomen after removal but to supply it in a small envelope attached to the one containing the butterfly.
Not only are Morphos without abdomens really ugly looking, but they cannot be used for study purposes.

The only way for this change to be made is for buyers from local suppliers to REFUSE TO BUY specimens without abdomens, then the suppliers would learn quickly.

Adam.

The problem is that most of the big colourful common species are sold to the framing trade, and they couldn't give a toss aboiut abdomens.

Having collected perhaps 100 or so morphos, representing a half dozen species or so, I can say that I've never seen a specimen grease up with attached abdomens. Perhaps with reared females - this could be a problem. But as long as you take care of the bugs once they are dead, I've never had a problem.

John

I have spent a life time with Morphos and so I know them fairly well. A large percent of set males with abdomens left on will eventually grease usually within the first few weeks. Females are very much less frequent to grease and so abdomens are not usually removed. Fortunately most Morpho helenors do not grease at all and so abdomens can be left on both sexes. I usually give abdomens two separate acetone baths of about 24 hours each, let them dry, and then glue them back on. A greased set specimen can usually have the grease removed fairly easily within just a few minutes when set in a wide container of acetone; you may have to slide the pin up a bit so that it can fit in a shallow acetone bath container. You can adjust the pin after the bath. When setting the Morphos without abdomens use pins to hold down anal flaps so that when dry the degreased abdomen can easily be inserted into that space and glued on without much obstruction. Sometimes after degreasing and setting, the specimen may still grease which requires an additional bath. Relaxing and papering specimens that have already been degreased can sometimes allow more grease to again spoil the wings which may require another bath when reset. Some Morphos are worse than others and I have found Morpho amphityron attali to be by far the worst requiring multiple baths. If grease stains are left too long on the wings they may be nearly impossible to remove later so a quick bath after setting usually is enough. I hope this helps. Thank for reading.

I have read here in the past on the forum that acetone is not necessarily ideal on its own for degreasing. Perhaps when mixed with something else the results are better but, it has been said that acetone alone leeches out the natural oils (present in a butterfly's wing) so badly that the wings then curl upwards -- particularly at the forewing apex.

I've never degreased anything myself so I have no personal experiences to fall back on. I've only had a few things over the years grease up on me and they have nearly always been moths. I just toss them out and have replaced most of them. However, I cannot imagine the dismay of having this occur on morpho's or birdwing butterflies which can be pricey most of the time.....

There are a number of degreasing threads, and experiments, on this forum (maybe in Archives?) Would make a nice summary and sticky.

Acetone can cause curling of the wing tips because it also dries the specimen. It’s not the oil, it’s the additional moisture. Other agents that can be used include toluene, xylene, carbon tetrachloride.

Thanks to everyone who answered my post!
I seldom deal with Morphinae. I purchased a few Morpho sulkowskyi
from Chuck Ianny about 15 years ago. He sent me a bag of abdomens.
I glued them w/o degreasing. With all due respect to Chuck, I would not
use these specimens in a genetic study.

Odorless mineral spirits (not the junk that is sold in California) is much superior to acetone or EA for degreasing bugs. The latter two can cause warping and even partial un-setting of the mount.

Regarding degreasing:
I use a procedure based in general on Le Moult's book
"Mes chasses aux papillons". It's a shame this book has still not been translated into English. His recipe: "Put the specimen in well-refined benzene, then the wings are covered with Sepiolite (Mg4Si6O15(OH)2·6H2O). I did this a few times in a simplified way: I sprayed the specimens with lighter fuel, such as "Ronsonol lighter fuel," and powdered the wings and abdomen with a "Toothpaste powder " (A finely-grained Sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3). The powder absorbs the fat from the solvent and becomes yellowish-brown. Then, it is washed away with another spray of the lighter fuel. The procedure can be repeated until the fat and powder are gone. There was no damage/curling to the wings, at least in large Saturniidae and Sphingidae.

I use acetone for degreasing. It works quickly, it's easy, & it seldom causes the wingtips to curl up. Occasionally it does, but weighing down the wingtips with a glass strip will prevent this. I have never had a problem with the glass sticking to the wings. If you wait until the degreased specimen is completely dry, this shouldn't be a problem. I have never degreased a Morpho, but it works on most other families. I have removed & degreased silkmoth & sphinx moth abdomens without any problems.