How old can be the specimens sampled if to expect a reasonable success rate?
From our experience with thousands of samples of Lepidoptera processed so far, you can expect high success rate (>80%) for specimens collected within the past 10 years, both for collection specimens and papered specimens; the latter should work better though, especially if they had been kept frozen. We strongly encourage our collaborators to give priority to samples not older than 10 years old, reserving others for these species/specimens which can hardly be found elsewhere as fresher material. Please advise the campaign or campaigns coordinators if you wish to sample a large quantity of relatively old specimens as we may adopt a special procedure for them.
