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Mating Insects, Bee and Leaf in Amber image 1
Mating Insects, Bee and Leaf in Amber image 2
Lot 8074¤

Mating Insects, Bee and Leaf in Amber

4 December 2005, 11:00 PST
Los Angeles

Sold for US$822.50 inc. premium

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Mating Insects, Bee and Leaf in Amber

Diptera nematocera scatopsidae and
Hymenoptera proplebeia dominicana
Oligocene
Dominican Republic

These minute black scavenger flies were caught inflagrante delicto. Preserved in a beautiful circular cabochon of Dominican amber, along with a stingless bee and leaf. These lovers have been frozen in time for 30 million years. Insects found mating in amber are exceptionally rare and this pair is exquisitely preserved and beautifully displayed in a crystal plastic box. These midges were scavengers whose larvae developed in decaying matter and formed huge 'clouds' when they got together to mate. The insects would remain in copula for hours, and were sometimes blown into sticky resin in the tropical Dominican amber forest, where they would be preserved for time immemorial. Mating insect specimens are seldom found with other inclusions, but this rare piece also includes a stingless bee, that got too close when harvesting resin for its nest, and a leaf from the resin producing tree, the Hymenaea. A fascinating conversation piece and scientifically important specimen highly sought after by the serious collector. Measuring 1 ¼ x 1 x ½ in.

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Without Reserve

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