Dominican Amber
Item 129
This is one of those pieces that the animal is obscured due to 20 million year old air bubbles. It has a fairly good sized long legged fly, Diptera, Dolichopodidae. The fly shows better in these pictures than 'real life'.
Item 130
Nice sized piece with a smallish nymph of a planthopper, Homoptera. Some cloudy areas in this piece. - part of a wing also.
Item 131
Nearly spherical, this medium sized piece contains a very nice fungus gnat near the top, Diptera, Mycetophilidae.
Item 132
For some reason I love crane flies, Diptera, Tipulidae. Their legs are normally pulled off since they break easily in the resin.
Item 133
If you like botanical specimens, you will love this one. Lots of stuff to keep you interested. There is a nice stamen, a few 'twigs' (rather small to be twigs though) and what I think is part of a leaf. Good piece, good price.
Item 134
A good piece of moss is always something that sends shivers down my spine. You will like this one. Clear and easily seen.
SOLD
Item 135
Back half of a bristletail, 1 wasp (maybe a webspinner, but I doubt it) and a moth fly. This is not the piece you buy for the insects, buy it for the size, since it is large, and the insects are only fair.
Item 136
This is a cool piece. It is rather a dark amber color. There is a small primitive fly, Nematocera, but it has a very nice male winged ant, Hymenoptera, Dolichoderinae (?). There is a decomposition bubble emanating from the abdomen, which is not common in ants (termites, yes, ants no).
Item 137
Nice size, very interesting piece. There is some surface glazing, but does not interfere at all with specimen. there is 2 tropical stingless bees that are inside an amber tube. That is, one amber flow caught the bees and then another and another flow came over them. The bees are visible, but are occluded by some air bubbles.
Item 138
Item 139
Amber without animals - actually most amber does not have animals. But this does have some very interesting air bubbles. One bubble has a bubble within a bubble. That indicates that the bubble really has water in it - 24 million year old water.
Item 141
Very nice cab shape, clear with great color. There is one animal in the sea of yellow, a wasp, Hymenoptera.
Item 142
A fun piece of amber. There must be a half dozen platypodid beetles in this piece, Coleoptera, Platypodidae.
Item 143
A very large piece of Dominican amber with a large leaf. Perfect. The amber is about 88 grams and about 3 x 2 x 1 inch in size. The single huge leaf is about 2 inches long. By the way, that is VERY large. This is the type of piece that sets a collection, it is even large enough to be the representative of a collection - as good as it gets.
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Item 145
An interesting piece. First, this does have a surface crazing - common in some of the Dominican ambers. But inside are a number of cool beetles, There are 7 bark beetles, Scodytidae and 2 Colydiidae beetles (cylindrical bark beetles, of the genus Bitoma. If you like beetles, this is a beetle fest.
Item 146
Rather interesting piece. There is a large cricket in here. It is partly hidden by the forest litter debris, but you can see it. Shows better on the scan.
SOLD
Item 147
A great piece that show what an amber tube really is---- resin that flows over an already hardened piece of resin. Even has an unknown insect off to the side.
SOLD
Item 149
This has a couple of crane flies, Diptera, Tipulidae. I like crane flies because of the long legs that are always around them. They frequently loose their legs as they try to extract themselves from the sticky resin. There are also some other gnats, a moth fly and others.
SOLD
Item 150
Rather shaped like a strange pyramid, this amber contains 2 leaf beetles, Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae and a planthopper, Fulgoridea.
Item 151
Fun and informative. This does have a fungus gnat, Diptera, Mycetophilidae and 2 planthopper nymphs. This piece is cool, not because of the insects, but how it was formed. You can see that this is a cross section of a an amber tube. You can see the original amber flow and then successive layers of resin flows (like stalagmite).
Item 152
Female worker ant, Hymenoptera, Formicidae off to the side along with an immature unknown animal. There is some interesting debris scattered in this piece, guaranteed to keep you looking.
Item 153
Rather nice sized piece with 2 very large elongate springtails, Family Entomobryidae, Order Collembola. These are often overlooked because they are so small, but these two are big. There is also some plant parts and even 2 flies.
SOLD
Item 154
Here are two argentine ants, Hymenoptera, Formicidae. They are both in the genus Linepithema and are males. The piece is small and the ants do not 'jump out at you'.
Item 155
Item 160
A wonderful piece of Dominican amber. Smallish in size, but it is clear and has a wonderful color. There is what looks like a 'peeled' flower. Maybe better described as an exploded flower. You can even see the stamens in this guy. Very unusual and very neat.
Item 161
Here you go - this is the rare isopod - sometimes called by my daughter, a roly poly, genus Sphaeroniscidae. Rather rare in any amber, this is a nice specimen.
Item 162
I like beetles. Here is a nice rhizophag beetle, Coleoptera, Rhizophagidae. The amber is a bit on the small size, but the beetle is normal sized.
SOLD
Item 163
If this picture on the left doesn't attraction your attention, nothing will. At first I thought this might be a mosquito, but I now think it is a female, long beaked fungus gnat, Nematocera, Lygistorrhinidae (or it could be Mycetophilidae). When it became stuck in the sticky resin, it laid it's eggs. You can see a rather large amount of detail on the egg case. There is a large spider and some other Dipterans, but the eggs and fungus gnat are what makes this stand out from the rest. There is a just a lot here.
