Amyl acetate: an alternative technique to dry mount Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) from alcohol, faster and inexpensively.

Ethanol (EtOH) 70% is commonly used in collections to preserve and store many unprepared soft-bodied Chalcidoidea. Specimens air-dried directly from alcohol, however, often suffer from collapse of some body parts, making subsequent observation of their morphology difficult or even impossible. We propose an inexpensive method for processing and dry-mounting specimens of Chalcidoidea, using a chemical process including amyl acetate.