Plastination was invented 1978 by Gunther von Hagens. It's a revolutionary method for preserving soft tissues. This is an example of a Hyalophora cecropia caterpillar (North American species, specimen ex ovo on lilac, Vienna, 1999, coll. D. Staykov) plastinated at the Institute of Anatomy (Vienna University) using the S10 method.
The caterpillar has not changed in size, colors are well recognizable. This method could be useful in preserving insect larvae and soft arthropods as for example spiders ,which tend to shrink when air dried and loose their colors when they are kept in alcohol for longer periods of time.The dehydration of the specimens at low temperatures helps avoiding the changes in size and the short duration of the process (several weeks) allows almost always a good color preservation. For futrther information about plastination visit the homepage of the Institute of Anatomy.
