Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Saving our natural heritage, one stopper at a time

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The rubber stopper is sticky in my hands. I can see it drooping into the vial, threatening the two tiny insect specimens inside, a pair of small green stoneflies, Alloperla furcula. Vial stoppers should not be sticky, and definitely should not be melting into the glass vial holding these important reference specimens. I have to save them from total annihilation.

The stoppers were purchased about 30 years ago. They showed no signs of distress for many years.

The stoppers were purchased about 30 years ago. They showed no signs of distress for many years.

The Illinois Natural History Survey Insect Collection holds more than 350,000 vials with more than 3 million insect and arthropod specimens inside. About 70 percent of these are in vials with stoppers that are – or could soon be – melting. This is a collections management catastrophe.

The problem had its origin about 30 years ago. Someone at a container supply company changed the exact composition of the rubber used in the vial stoppers the INHS used to store soft-bodied insects and other arthropods in 75-percent ethanol. For the first 10-15 years they were used, the gray vials did not show any signs of decay. That has recently changed. Thousands of vial stoppers in the collection have started to melt.

The melting is slow, but steady, and seems to be worse in different parts of the collection. Millimeter by millimeter, the melting rubber is collapsing into or around the glass vials that store millions of priceless specimens.

Hope is not lost, however. Thanks to a National Science Foundation Collections in Support of Biological Research grant, most of the spiders, beetles, caterpillars and lacewings have already been saved. The Prairie Research Institute also has used emergency funds to purchase an additional 60,000 vials. This is allowing us to begin the slow process of replacing them.

While we work, however, the melting vials are endangering millions of specimens, including priceless caddisflies, mayflies and stoneflies collected over many decades. These are used as essential reference specimens when inferring water quality in Illinois streams and rivers.

A cadre of Master Naturalists, volunteers, undergraduate students and our collection assistants are stepping up to help me with this enormous task. But we need more help. Time and money are limited. More volunteers are needed to replace the vials, and more money is required to save the specimens.

I am able to save the two stoneflies in this one vial. If the task had been delayed a few more months, they would have been permanently entrapped in a morass of rubbery goo, and a small piece of scientific knowledge would have been lost forever.

Editor’s notes:

The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

To donate to support and preserve the INHS Insect Collection, go to the Prairie Research Institute Gifts Page and select “Give to Collections” and write “INSECT COLLECTION” in the “Additional Instructions” box. To donate your time, email McElrath.

Subscribe to Behind the Scenes for short blog posts, photos and videos from Illinois faculty, researchers, students and staff about their work and lives. Send an email with “SUBSCRIBE BTS” in the subject line.

Read Next

Humanities Diptych image with book cover of "The New Internationals" and a headshot of English professor David Wright Faladé

English professor’s novel tells of love triangle in post-WWII Paris, based on his family history

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new novel by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign English professor David Wright Faladé tells the story of three people in a love triangle in post-World War II Paris. The characters in “The New Internationals” — a young French woman who has survived the Holocaust, a university student from West Africa and a […]

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010