Unknown Insect #2 under the Microscope🔬 (incl. how to soften & mount specimen)

Here is an insect collected from the front of a car grill. Because it is an old specimen, I wanted to soften it a bit so I could cut off one of its wings off to mount onto a slide. Originally I wanted to collect unknown wings because they are all so different. But it would be a waste of the body to not look at it either. Plus I’ve purchased heaps of little bottles to keep them in, so no worries there. I have many happy little homes for them. All I need is a proper box to keep them in. Plus, it is probably a good idea to document them as one if I ever needed to refer back to them.

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Dead insects that are days or weeks old become brittle. I was afraid the wing would crumble into pieces whilst handling it, more importantly while I am mounting it onto a slide. Before checking the insect out, I will go over the process I had gone through to soften the specimen and mount the wing for observation.

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To soften insects that have dried out, I popped the insects into a relaxing jar. The humidity in the relaxing jar will slowly soften the insect. Instead of making a relaxing jar according to University of Minnesota or University of Kentucky which uses more materials, I decided to alter it to make it more simple.

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Since the insects were a little big, I decided to leave it in the relaxing jar for 3 days. Although I did check it each day to make sure mould was not forming. To avoid this, I placed a mixture of water and rubbing alcohol into a glass jar. I then took the lid off the jar the insects were in and placed the jar (floating) on top of the water. Then I closed the lid of the relaxing jar.

After the second day I did slightly touch the wing with my tools to feel how soft or brittle it was. I could feel the wing still had a little bit of resistance so I knew the third day would be perfect. Well I hoped it would be. On the third day I prepared my slide and glass cover slip by setting up the double sided tape along the edge of the cover slip.

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I used 3mm wide double sided tape onto two opposite sides of the cover slip. I then peeled back the backing before placing double sided tape along the remaining sides of the cover slip.

Once I had it set up I was ready to snip the wing off my specimen. Watch out, Doctor Soju is in the house (meow). I was lucky Soju didn’t come up for a light snack. Must be due to the rubbing alcohol smell, she didn’t bother investigating as she normally does.

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Once I cut the wing off, I carefully placed the wing onto the cover slip. Making sure the side I want to see is faced down and the specimen is not touching the tape. Then I placed the slide on top and held my breath as I pushed it down to adhered the glass cover slip holding the specimen onto the slide.

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I then flipped it over and lightly pushed down along the taped area to ensure it is properly adhered. If the glass cover slip happens to crack while you are pushing down, use clear liquid nail polish to seal the crack to avoid possible injury.

Lastly I used a lens wipe to clean the slide, top and bottom, to remove any fingerprint mark and debris.

Now it is time to check the wing and body under the microscope. By mounting the wing, it will make it easier and clearer to view it flat, rather on an angle.

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Here is a quick overview of the wing using the scanning lens (x4) together with the x10 eyepiece; making it a total magnification of x40.

Oh, there is something on the edge of the wing there.
Let us have a closer look.

Mmmmm I am not sure what it is, anyone want to guess? Also what is that long fluff? It reminds me of the fluff that was caught in my hair knot that we checked out under the microscope last time.

Although with that long transparent fluff it makes it look like a superhero.

Like the other wing’s we’ve seen so far, this wing is just as or even more hairy. Although along the top edge of the wing we can see bigger pores with thicker hair in abundance. Also there are a lot of black little specs stuck between the hairs, are they dirt?

Here is its other broken wing. Also we can see the body of the insect is black in colour with lighter coloured hair. But it is not as hairy as other insects we’ve seen. We can also see quite a lot of little bits of foreign matter, such as black specs and yellow specs that look like dirt and pollen.

It also has really long legs, spiky hairy legs with what looks like claws at the ends. Similar to all the previous insects we have viewed so far. But not as spiky as the moth legs.

OMG x2!!
OMG 1 = I didn’t make the gif properly, you can see the pause and next/previous signs
OMG 2 = It looks like my unknown insect is a yucky FLY!!!! EWWWWW!!!

Now all I can think of is Louie the Fly, cartoon fly for an Aussie brand insect killer/repellent, flying around with black specs of germ and dirt spreading everywhere.

I am no insect specialist, but looking at the head of the insect just reminds me of a fly.
What do you think? Any idea what sort of insect this is?

Note: All photos and gifs belong to @supersoju

References:
Collecting and preserving insects
How to make & Use a Relaxing Jar
How do you make dry-mounted permanent slides