A practical and safe alternative method for skeletal cleaning for museum specimens using superworms (Zophobas morio) (IMAGE)

PLOS

A practical and safe alternative method for skeletal cleaning for museum specimens using superworms (Zophobas morio)

Caption

Sequential cleaning of a Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix) specimen by superworms (using larva to specimen ratio of 7). (A) Initial placement of the specimen into the larval container. (B) Specimen after 8 hours of larval cleaning, showing partial removal of soft tissues. (C) Specimen after 12 hours, with complete defleshing and intact skeletal elements preserved. Specimen was rotated every 6–8 hours into fresh containers. Original photographs captured by the authors and created for this study.

Credit

Rastekar et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Usage Restrictions

Credit must be given to the creator.

License

CC BY

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