It depends on how long the pitfall traps were open (in the field), i.e. how
much of the alcohol had evaporated from your 50%-50% mixture.

To be on a safe side, I would add more alcohol to the mixture prior to
sealing the cups, and then they can can keep for a long time. You should
also check what is the optimal dilution ratio for you target organisms, most
commonly this is around 70-80% (ethanol). Also watch out as having a wrong
dilution can make your specimens brittle and cause them to break whille
handling.

Just to illustrate, I had kept ant samples in Brugal Rum for up to 5 months
while doing fieldwork in the Dominican republic. 

Best

Marko

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