Santa Clarita and Northern Los Angeles County Area
Butterfly and Moth Site
Tips and ideas for conserving, collecting, preserving, and displaying lepidoptera.
Shipping mounted specimens through the mail.
As many collectors know, the best quality specimens are usually those
which were mounted when still fresh at the time of capture. Specimens
which are papered and then later relaxed just before mounting usually
suffer some damage, and of course require the extra effort of the
relaxing process.
Sending papered specimens through the mail is widely used because it's
cheap, easy and relatively safe for the specimens. Mounted specimens can
seem like a much riskier, difficult and expensive proposition.
However, if prepared and packaged properly, shipping mounted bugs
through the mail can also be quite safe and economical. Detailed below
are some tips for getting mounted specimens to their destination with a
minimum of hassle, risk and expense.
Some notes on the USPS mail system:
Most shipping methods have their pros and cons, but one method stands
out above the others where cost, speed, and handling matter... US Postal
Service 1st class mail. I've tried a number of "premium" methods;
"priority", "express", and all different carriers and found that they
usually take longer and definitely cost more than 1st class mail.
There are some limits to qualifying for the 1st class mail category -
most notable is the 13 oz. weight maximum. For papered specimens, this
is usually no problem. However, the extra packaging needed for mounted
bugs can be a challenge. If you don't care about cost or time, the same
method shown below can still be used with heavier materials, and then
shipped parcel post or similar.
The Procedure:
Probably the most important goal is to keep all materials as light as
possible. If you have a postal scale, you can monitor the weight of the
materials used as you go along. This is really helpful. Most of the
materials can be made from re-used shipping/packaging materials. Keeping
weight in mind, let's get started...
First, you'll need to find or "make" a lightweight "inner" cardboard
box. This is the box that will contain your bugs. It should be about 2"
high, and suitable in length and width to handle the number of
specimens you want to ship. 6"x10"x2" is probably about as big as you'll
want to go, or staying under the 13 oz. limit will be close to
impossible. I chose a very thin "cigar box"- shaped container, left over
from some online mail order.
Then, I found some lightweight 1/4" thick styrofoam sheet (more scrap
shipping/packaging) and taped it into place as shown.
Since most specimens are only a very small part of the package total
weight, load it up! I managed to get over 30 into this box. Caution -
Sphinx moths may add-up to more than you think, so keep an eye on the
scale if you're packing sphinx!
After adding the specimens to the box, the foam lining on the lid should
make contact with the tops of the pins when it's closed, preventing the
specimens from working loose during shipment. Loose specimens in the box
can only cause disaster, so be sure they stay put.
Note that thick-bodied, bulky specimens such as sphinx moths, may rotate
around the pin axis, so an extra pin in front of each forewing, about
mid-way, will prevent that sort of motion. The image below shows a
different shipping box with several specimens pinned so that they cannot
rotate.
If you only need to ship 1 or a few, you can make a much smaller box, as
shown below.
Now that the inner box is done and the specimens are inside, tape it
closed, and let's get started on the outer box. We are going to use an
outer box that's about 2" to 3" larger in all dimensions than the inner
box. A much larger outer box will work too, but there's that pesky
weight limit to watch. Since the packing material will absorb most of
the pressure and shock during transportation, the outer box does not
need to be heavy-duty. It should be reasonably strong but still
lightweight. Note the thin cardboard of the outer box shown. When packed
and taped closed, it's surprisingly strong.
First, fill the outer box with a 2"-3" layer of styrofoam "peanuts".
These are probably the best choice for Ultra-lightweight packing
material. Then set the inner box inside, add more packing around the
sides, and finally a top layer of packing.
When finished, you should have the inner box packed as close to the
center of the outer box as possible, with an equal space on all sides
filled with packing material. The packing should be tight enough to
prevent rattling around of the inner box, but loose enough to allow for
some compression of the outer box during shipping. The inner box should
ride in the core of the package while the foam packing and outer box
take all the abuse.
The tape you use should be lightweight transparent packaging tape.
Avoid heavy tapes like duct, masking or nylon reinforced tapes.
When finished, this entire package with 33 specimens weighed exactly 12
oz. and only cost $2.90 to ship. If carefully built and handled with
re-use in mind, the inner box should last for many round trips. The
outer box's useful life will depend on the abuse sustained in transit.
