Chiapas Spiders
This is the fabled Chiapas amber from the Mayan mines in Chiapas, Mexico. This page is exclusively spiders. For some reason there is a special quality to amber with spiders in it. Enjoy the page as you go through it.
Item 1
No better way to start this page than with the remnants of a spider web. This is a nice piece, clear with great color.
Item 3
There is a lot of debris in this large piece of amber. The spider is large - about 3/4 of an inch. While there are distractions in this piece, the spider does catch one's attention.
Item 4
I am not a specialist in spiders, but my guess on this one is the Family, Uloboridae; Migrammopes. This spider has enormous long front legs. Rather on the rare side.
Item 5
Item 6
While this is not a spider, many people think it is. I believe this is be a 'daddy-long-legs', and Opilioneae. 'He" is located at one end of the piece of amber.
Item 7
Quite a piece of amber. It is large and contains three spiders, midges (maybe a dozen flies, Nematocera) and a lot of other inclusions. Fun to look at. One of the spiders is nice sized, the other two are smaller. This even has what looks like a stellate oak hair (doubtful).
Item 8
I love spider webs. This is a beauty - shows the sticky globules and even a wasp near the web lines. You will love this piece. It is a great addition to anyone's collection.
Item 9
A large piece of amber that shows a nice sized spider. Actually there are 2 spiders in this piece, a gnat and a worker ant. This is a nice piece.
Item 10
It looks like the spider is trying to wrap up a mall fly. There are 2 spiders in this piece, a small wasp and a very small section of a Bryophyte (plant).
Item 11
The spider is really nice. Along the sides of amber are areas of cloudiness, but bottom line, the spider is soooo easy to see.
Item 12
I am not even going to try and ID this spider, it is large and apparently degraded since it has lost some of the 'insides'. It is cool though. There is what looks like a caddis fly, Trichoptera, a wasp and a gnat - even a beetle. As you can see in the scanned image, this is a nice sized and clear piece, about 1.5 x 1 x .5 inches in size.
Item 13
Just a rather unusual looking spider. The amber is tear drop shaped and attractive. The spider, it is just unusual with some strange mouth parts - who knows?
Item 14
I admit it, I am not an expert in spiders. There are 2 spiders here - one is a male (the enlarged pedipalps) and the other with the enlarged abdomen. It looks like part of the abdomen has been cut away. But to me, this screams of a mated pair of spiders. Might not be, but it certainly looks like it. Not only is this a male and female spider, but the amber they are in is layered from many successive resin flows - a real cool effect.
Item 16
There is just something cool about spiders. This has a detailed spider off to the side, easily seen without a microscope. Also, there is what looks like a shed on the other side. A good piece.
Item 17
Well, not a spider, but a "daddy long legs" or sometimes called Harvestmen (Opiliones). While that takes up most the the specimen, there really is another small, male spider in this one.
Item 18
This is slightly different. This is a piece that would be perfect to be made into a pendant. The shape and thickness is perfect for it. A band of silver or gold or just a clasp at the top - any jeweler can do this. It has some nice layering and shows well. On the side is a small but distinct spider.
Item 19
Ticks are very rare - and I always have a hard time distinguishing a tick from a mite, but I think this is a tick. Not only that, but not far from the 'tick' is a small tuft of mammalian hair. I think this tells a story.
Item 20
This is a large ground beetle, Coleoptera, Carabidae. They are not good fliers, but are good runners. Note the long thorax and the elytra have brilliant colors. Ground beetles lead a predaceous lifestyle, primarily inhabiting the ground surface. This is particularly fine specimen.
Item 21
A nice sized and very clear piece of amber. This has a rather large mite (at least I think it is a mite...not tick.....I always find these hard to distinguish). There is also a midge, Chironomidae.
Item 22
Item 22
Item 23
Spider in a large chunk of amber. About 2 x 1 x .3 inches in size. Spider is on the smallish side, but still easily seen.
Item 24
First of all - this is a 39 gram piece, that is good sized. It does look like there are spider webs scattered around, also some debris from the forest. There is a spider although it is hard to see it in it's entirety. But what I find fascinating is that there might be an egg sac in this. It is either an egg sac or a perfectly spherical abdomen. Not sure, my money is on the egg sac. There is as small winged termite in this.
Item 25
Large, about 2.5 inches long. Very clear and attractive. There is a nice spider off side side center. Also there is an immature weevil.
Item 26
52 grams of dark amber color. This is a beautiful piece of Chiapas perhaps overshadowing the small spider - it is the amber that is so cool.
Small video
