How to card insects for photography

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Extreme Macro ›› Insects ›› Mounting Insects ›› Carding Insects
Carding Insects
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by Johan J Ingles-Le Nobel
Last updated January 26, 2014
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Cleaning Insects
Relaxing Insects
C
arding insects is the act of attaching insects to insect cards for preservation
purposes, and is a fiddly, difficult task that takes some experience before it
becomes second nature.
Spreading Insects
Pinning Insects
The Sweep Net
The Pitfall Trap
The Moth Trap
Carding is usually done after spreading insects, and is an
alternative to pinning insects for beetles smaller than 1cm.
What You Need
Card
Carding & Extreme Macro
T
Crossover tweezers
or jewelry spatula
Custom tools
he reason that carding is of interest to extreme macro
Plastic cup
photographers should be reasonably obvious - it gives the
Setting needle
preserved specimen a natural appearance and the glue can
s ubsequently be washed off to mount the insect with a pin instead
for photography .
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Water soluble glue
The Butterfly Trap
Beating for Insects
Finding Insects Using Food
Planting For Insects
External Links
Carding techniques
Insect carding standards
Dry preservation techniques
Carding problems and solutions
What is gum Arabic
What is Tragacanth
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2. In entomology, pointing is gluing the insect to the tip of a triangle of white card which is then
mounted on a pin. Carding uses rectangular pieces of card either 20x9 mm or 14x5 mm to
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provide a stage for the insect and staging involves pinning the insect with a very small headless
pin called a minuten.
How To Card Insects
1. Identify before carding. It is always best
to identify a specimen before carding it,
Restore dehydrated
insect eyes with
Decon90 wetting
agent.
s o that underside characteristics can be
s een more easily.
2. Carding is a million times easier with
Isopropanol, the
secret ingredient to
faster specimen
drying.
properly relaxed insects whose parts
Feature
move easily and stay in position once
they've been moved.
Arthropod preparation for scientific photography
requires an esoteric set of skills, large reserves
of patience and a bit of luck. There are
materials, tools and skills from the entomology
world that help:
3. Start by turning the relaxed insect onto
its back, and tease out the appendages
to the right position.
A low power binocular
microscope makes this much
easier to see
Depending on the insect I'll hold it
down in one of several ways.
Either a thin long piece of erasor
used on to hold it down, or a
s pecial tool I made which has a
couple of pins twisted round to
have a Y at the end that can be
Black belt carding of an insect, providing a
perfect pose to subsequently take a stack. Good
carding is one of the most valuable skills that the
extreme macro stacker can absorb from the
entomology world, as it make for much better
images.
used to hold an insect down,
rather like using a twig to pin down a snake.
Catch insects by using a sweep net, pitfall
trap, moth trap, butterfly trap or beating.
Still by freezing, using the right chemicals or
lend your expertise to building a chilling
chamber.
Mount or pin your specimen after cleaning,
relaxing, spreading and carding and
restoring.

3. I tend to start by teasing out the back two legs first, then work my way up to the front
legs leg by leg.
I use a pair of home-made hook tips. There are pieces of balsa wood (pen length)
with a headless insect pin glued in and hooked at the end by bending the tip with
s mall pliers. They help me pull a leg out carefully by hooking it.
Most Recent Comments
Fwiw, I heard some talk of a MPE65 V2
last year, but I haven't heard anything more of
it. in: Lenses
I also use some standard entomology setting needles if I don't need to hook
s omething but can move it just by using a pin.
Another pair of my tools have parallel pins. Using the Y tool to hold the body, I slide
A topic has just been posted in the FM
Macro World forum, pointing out that the MPE65 has not... in: Lenses
the parallel tool down either side of the leg and twist to move and hold the leg in the
right place.
Small paint brushes can also be used to manoeuvre the legs (size 0, 9mm tip).
4. Turn the insect the right way up and it is now ready to be carded.
Thanks Johan. You have interpreted my
questions as I intended and your answers
being in the affirmative is very... in: PTTL
Cords
5. To pick up an insect onto card quickly, use a wet brush.
6. If you are hoping to keep the collection long-term, then acid free card is the best to use.
Bristol card is the premium version, but 250 g/m2 (gsm) white card from art suppliers is
perfectly good and at a pinch, just use the matt side from old Christmas cards.
Hello John - they are indeed in piggyback
but that was just so I could take a photo,
they... in: PTTL Cords
7. Great care should be taken not to use too much gum. Use half as much as you think.
8. Paint a blob of glue onto a suitable area of card for the body. Use a stronger glue to glue
down the body and keep it in position (ie Fish glue). You need a short, flat glue patch.
Hi Johan - Just a question about the
configuration shown for the Nissin in the
photograph above. Are the... in: PTTL Cords
9. As soon as the glue is down, pick the beetle up and place it onto the glue, aiming to stick
between the mid and hind legs.
10. Use different (thinner) glue for the legs, ie old fashioned gum Arabic from an artist's supply
s hop or Tragacanth.
11. To arrange the legs symmetrically, if right-handed, turn card anticlockwise 90 degrees and
glue the legs on the left side of the beetle first with the legs towards you. Then card the legs
on the right hand side with the card pointing forwards normally.
12. Carding antennae separates the men from the boys
Before setting antennae apply a small amount of dilute glue and stick the head and
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4. jaws down. This prevents the head moving as the specimen dries which distorts the
antennae.
First extend the antennae by stroking out the terminal segment with a brush.
With the antennae roughly in position, brush the smallest amount of water (damping
the excess off on tissue first) at and just beyond where the last antennal segment will
rest.
With a bit of luck or encouragement from the brush the antennae will sit in position
held by the last segment and the water.
Now you can see exactly where it needs to be glued, transfer a small amount of glue
to the area just beyond the last antennal segment. It should soak back down around
the segment.
If you can manage to card a beetle with glue on just the last segment of the antennae
then you should consider yourself a carding ninja.
13. In case of disaster, remember that you can always wash your insect in water to get off the
glue and start again.
14. To put things into perspective, it takes entomologists years to become proficient at this.
Your early struggles are part of the fun.
Holding Tool
Make yourself a cheap holding tool by holding two ent pins together in a pair of pliers and
twisting together with another pair. Then make a Y with one end and put into some balsa
wood.
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