Thanks for the compliment Will. Answers to your questions:

1: I've been conducting a survey of the Wisconsin Histeridae for the last 7-8 years. Histerids are found in a wide variety of micro-habitats hence a wide variety of collecting methods was employed. Various traps were used including flight-intercept traps, barrier-pitfall traps, Lindgren-funnel traps and baited-pitfall traps. Forest litter (leaf litter or tree-hole litter) was processed through Berlese funnels. Specimens were also hand-collected from anywhere and everywhere. Leave no stone or piece of bark or carcass unturned. But remember to gently restore overturned objects to their original positions.

2: I had the great work 'Les Coleopteres Histerides du Quebec' by Bousquet and Laplante (1999) to lead me. Translated what I needed by scanning pages and running paragraphs thru free on-line translation software. There is a good amount of overlap (approx. 60%) in our faunae. The bibliography directed me to other literature. This pair of authors recently put out a fantastic work on the entire Canadian fauna. I've also had a lot of help from various histerid experts. 'American Beetles' is also an indispensible resource.

3: The key to mounting them is to have some precision tools. A pair of fine-tipped forceps and some minuten-tools are a necessity. You need a foam pinning block with a groove parallel and close to one edge. The relatively fresh specimen is laid with its left side in the bottom of the grove and the right side up. Insert your closed forcep tip between the meso and metathoracic legs and allow the forceps to open. This should provide you with space for the point mount. Point mount end should be bent down with the forceps to an angle matching the side of the beetle (this takes practice). Apply adhesive to point and apply point to right side of specimen. Before the adhesive dries, make adjustments to the specimen position by nudging with fingers. Let adhesive harden. The legs and antennae can be manipulated for the next few hours to days with minuten-tools (a minuten pushed into and glued into a match stick; indispensible when properly fashioned; I'll post a pic this weekend). Image them soon after mounting as many specimens exude a substance after mounting. Note: clean specimens in alcohol throroughly with an artist's paintbrush and let dry prior to mounting.

Hope this helps.

Jeff