The Elytron

[Eli Jensen]

Hey Ed, you seem to know a lot about adhesives. I work in an entomology lab and marvel everyday about the beauty God put into the colors and patterns of insects. I had the idea to take the elytron

(http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/learning...gy/elytron.jpg),

press them flat, and maybe glue them into a mosaic maybe for a sheath inlay or something like that. I can't think of any way to adhere to them something other than glue. You can't very well weld/solder/pin/peen/etc these thing. My best guess is acraglass, but was wanting some other opinions. Thanks!

[Ed Caffrey]

The best thing that I've found for that sort of thing is the clear acrylic resin that they use when coating cypress clocks and table tops. It's optically clear, and doesn't yellow with age.

I made some knives one time for a fly fishing guide, and he wanted them to have dry flies "inlayed" in the handles. What I did was drill 1/2 hole completely through the handle, put masking tape on one side as a dam, and then filled the cavity with the resin....then I very carefully, using some long nosed tweezers, place the flies as close to possible to the center of the cavity. Let it dry for 24 hours, and then finished the handles down...it came out great. The trick was finding a resin that was thick enough so the object put into it would not "drift" after placing it. The resin I used was about as thick as it could be, and still be able to pour/dribble it into the cavity. If I remember correctly, I think I found the resin at Rockler wood working.

[Eli Jensen]

Yes I have some clear casting epoxy, and was thinking about doing some designs with that, perhaps even some whole beetles. But with the elytra I was going to have on the surface.

[Ed Caffrey]

OH! Mounted on the surface....hmmmmm? I've never tried anything like that. The first thing would be to get the bug "stabilized" in some way, and then mount it. I think your idea of the acraglass might be the best for that specific purpose.

[Eli Jensen]

Hmm I did not think to stabalize them. I wonder if that could work the same way as wood.

Some species such as those in the buprestidae family, known as "bullet beetles", "stump F-ers", I would not be worried about so much. The outer shell is so hard that when I pin them for display, I usually break 2-3 pins per beetle trying to pierce them. Others though can be soft and that is a good point to consider. If anyone has any idea on how to go about stabalizing beetle parts, please let me know.