Buggy Amber

[Mediospirifer]

Last year, I went to a gem & mineral show and (among other things) acquired this piece of amber. The seller assured me that it was amber (not copal), but he didn't know where it was from or how old it was.

 

I examined the piece (and several others) with my loupe before choosing this one, based of the number and variety of bugs in it. I have several spiders, a couple of ants, some mosquitos (one with an engorged gut if I'm not mistaken in the ID), a beetle, and at least one midge, plus a couple of things I can't identify.

 

My best guess at origin is Burmese. 

 

Under a desk lamp:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backlit by my laptop screen: 

 

 

Detailed closeups next!

 

 

 

 

[Mediospirifer]

Itsy bitsy spiders, stuck in a blob of sap:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two little ants, caught up in the same trap:

 

 

Beetle and skeeter, caught in sap as well:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a teeny-tiny midge with a tiny tale to tell:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All scale bars are 1mm total length.

 

 

 

 

[Mediospirifer]

Another pair of mosquitos. The one at left has an engorged gut:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And two more bugs that I don't recognize:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, all scale bars are 1mm total length. These bugs are tiny!

 

That's the lot. Preparing these photos was good practice in image stacking.

 

 

 

[caldigger]

There's a lot going on in that piece.

They must have been having Pitch Party. 

[Mediospirifer]

8 minutes ago, caldigger said:

There's a lot going on in that piece.

They must have been having Pitch Party. 

 

A lot indeed. I think the seller was surprised when I pulled out my loupe.

 

Ramon in the "Blood Engorged in Burmese Amber" says my mosquitos are actually midges. I guess I haven't looked that closely at midges before! 

 

[snolly50]

1 hour ago, Mediospirifer said:

The seller assured me that it was amber (not copal), but he didn't know where it was from or how old it was.

The amber/copal question can be addressed with an acetone test. Simply, "mature" amber is impervious to acetone, while copal reacts by softening.

Place a small drop of acetone on a flat polished surface of the amber/copal. Allow it to evaporate. Rub the area with a tissue. Copal will be sticky, amber will show no change.

 

Nice pictures, that's not easy to do.

[gieserguy]

2 hours ago, Mediospirifer said:

This ant in particular stood out to me. To my knowledge (and a quick google search to verify), there aren't any current ants with antennae this shape. The general ant antennae shape is a jointed L shape (geniculate), without lobes on the end. However, this little guy's antennae look straight and lobed/club-shaped at the end (clavate), but that is characteristic of butterflies and some beetles. EDIT: I think I see a slight elbow on the right/lower antenna. But there is still a very definitive lobe on the end! Maybe this is just some trait of a hymenopteran lineage that didn't survive to current day? In my mind at least, it makes sense because Burmese amber is form the Cretaceous Period, that's when flowers appeared, and that's when Hymenoptera - wasps, ants, and bees - diversified, so I'm sure there were countless hits and misses as evolution and natural selection did their job.

This could also be something in between wasp and ant, something of a wingless wasp maybe. The thing that points me to this is that I don't see a defined petiole and postpetiolar node on the "waist" section. Wasps only have a narrow "waist"/petiole, ants have the included postpetiolar node (essential a ball connecting the abdomen to the rest of the body).

 

I apologize if I'm rambling, this just really interests me! An amazing piece, thank you for sharing!

[Mediospirifer]

15 hours ago, snolly50 said:

The amber/copal question can be addressed with an acetone test. Simply, "mature" amber is impervious to acetone, while copal reacts by softening.

Place a small drop of acetone on a flat polished surface of the amber/copal. Allow it to evaporate. Rub the area with a tissue. Copal will be sticky, amber will show no change.

 

Nice pictures, that's not easy to do.

 

I've thought about trying a dab of acetone, but haven't yet. For now, at least, I'm willing to accept the seller's word.

 

Thanks for the compliment of my photography! I agree, it wasn't easy. My microscope camera isn't the greatest (it was cheap and functional), so I'll spend a long time taking my series of photos and pruning the photoset.

 

14 hours ago, gieserguy said:

This ant in particular stood out to me. To my knowledge (and a quick google search to verify), there aren't any current ants with antennae this shape. The general ant antennae shape is a jointed L shape (geniculate), without lobes on the end. However, this little guy's antennae look straight and lobed/club-shaped at the end (clavate), but that is characteristic of butterflies and some beetles. EDIT: I think I see a slight elbow on the right/lower antenna. But there is still a very definitive lobe on the end! Maybe this is just some trait of a hymenopteran lineage that didn't survive to current day? In my mind at least, it makes sense because Burmese amber is form the Cretaceous Period, that's when flowers appeared, and that's when Hymenoptera - wasps, ants, and bees - diversified, so I'm sure there were countless hits and misses as evolution and natural selection did their job.

This could also be something in between wasp and ant, something of a wingless wasp maybe. The thing that points me to this is that I don't see a defined petiole and postpetiolar node on the "waist" section. Wasps only have a narrow "waist"/petiole, ants have the included postpetiolar node (essential a ball connecting the abdomen to the rest of the body).

 

I apologize if I'm rambling, this just really interests me! An amazing piece, thank you for sharing!

 

Your ramble is interesting! I'm not an entomologist, although I've always been fascinated with bugs. It didn't even occur to me that this ant was unusual.

 

I think I should put the piece back under the scope and try photographing a few different angles, and possibly higher magnification. If I can get it to cooperate...

 

[gieserguy]

4 minutes ago, Mediospirifer said:

Your ramble is interesting! I'm not an entomologist, although I've always been fascinated with bugs. It didn't even occur to me that this ant was unusual.

 

I think I should put the piece back under the scope and try photographing a few different angles, and possibly higher magnification. If I can get it to cooperate...

 

Please do! I would love to see more of this! 

[Mediospirifer]

6 minutes ago, gieserguy said:

Please do! I would love to see more of this! 

 

I'll see what I can do. It'll take a few days, though! If only because my photostacking software is on my work PC, and I won't be back at the lab before Monday. Even if I finish photographing and pruning tonight, I won't be stacking before then.

 

Do you have any idea what my two unknown specimens might be? The first might be another midge, but the second is not.

 

[gieserguy]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 3:48 PM, Mediospirifer said:

 

I'll see what I can do. It'll take a few days, though! If only because my photostacking software is on my work PC, and I won't be back at the lab before Monday. Even if I finish photographing and pruning tonight, I won't be stacking before then.

 

Do you have any idea what my two unknown specimens might be? The first might be another midge, but the second is not.

 

Unfortunately I can't tell much about what they are. The first unknown might be some sort of Dipteran. The second one I'm not quite sure about - my initial thought was some type of Collembola. The leg and antennae shape are what made me think that, plus the little "tail" at the end could possibly be something of a furcula. But what's throwing me off from that is that it has a body that is clearly separated into three parts, which Collembola (at least current day ones) don't have. Or maybe I'm looking down the wrong rabbit hole. Who knows! I apologize that I can't answer further.

 

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 10:25 PM, Mediospirifer said:

 

 

Also, this guy might not be a mosquito. It definitely seems to be a dipteran though, so you're in the right order! This looks like a fly of some kind, very similar to current-day robber flies.

[Mediospirifer]

1 hour ago, gieserguy said:

Also, this guy might not be a mosquito. It definitely seems to be a dipteran though, so you're in the right order! This looks like a fly of some kind, very similar to current-day robber flies.

 

Ramon in the other thread ID'd that one as a midge. He says all of my "mosquitos" are midges (going by the lack of a long proboscis).

 

Do you know whether midges show the same kind of sexual dimorphism that mosquitos do? I'm talking about the antennae: male mosquitos have broad, feathery antennae while females don't. My second "mosquito" would be male, if that's the case (while I'm sure the engorged on is female; my understanding is that male biting insects generally don't bite!)

 

[gieserguy]

28 minutes ago, Mediospirifer said:

 

Ramon in the other thread ID'd that one as a midge. He says all of my "mosquitos" are midges (going by the lack of a long proboscis).

 

Do you know whether midges show the same kind of sexual dimorphism that mosquitos do? I'm talking about the antennae: male mosquitos have broad, feathery antennae while females don't. My second "mosquito" would be male, if that's the case (while I'm sure the engorged on is female; my understanding is that male biting insects generally don't bite!)

 

After a quick google search, it seems like there is some sexual dimorphism in midges, but it doesn't seem quite as extreme or apparent as with mosquitos. I believe both male and female midges have the feathery antennae.

[Mediospirifer]

1 minute ago, gieserguy said:

After a quick google search, it seems like there is some sexual dimorphism in midges, but it doesn't seem quite as extreme or apparent as with mosquitos. I believe both male and female midges have the feathery antennae.

 

Then I have a couple of different species! At least. I have one with highly visible feathery structures, and three with hard-to-see antennae.

 

I will definitely have to revisit the microscope. Watch this space for further developments!

 

 

[gieserguy]

1 minute ago, Mediospirifer said:

 

Then I have a couple of different species! At least. I have one with highly visible feathery structures, and three with hard-to-see antennae.

 

I will definitely have to revisit the microscope. Watch this space for further developments!

 

 

I'm excited to see what you find! You can count me in, haha

[Mediospirifer]

Well. I put the piece of amber back under the microscope, this time at maximum magnification.

 

Wow.

 

On the earlier photo, there's a line and a barely-visible smudge that look like scratches or other flaws in the specimen. Well....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A random smudge shouldn't be symmetrical, and a crack in the amber shouldn't have joints and hairlike projections! 

 

There certainly shouldn't be two such features if they were random cracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's only one explanation I think is plausible: This critter has wings! 

 

Here are a couple of views of the head and antennae:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gieserguy, when you said that some of its features were more wasplike than antlike, you were right on! 

 

I'll post better pix after I finish pruning the photoset and have a chance to stack the images. These are the raw images.

 

 

 

[gieserguy]

WOW! Wings! And the abdomen is so much clearer, there’s even the stinger/ovipositer!

This is exceptionally cool! Thank you for posting more photos of this!

(you inspired me to buy some amber, I’ve been bidding on the auction site haha!)

[Mediospirifer]

6 hours ago, gieserguy said:

WOW! Wings! And the abdomen is so much clearer, there’s even the stinger/ovipositer!

This is exceptionally cool! Thank you for posting more photos of this!

(you inspired me to buy some amber, I’ve been bidding on the auction site haha!)

 

Good luck! Also check out gem & mineral shows, sometimes you can find really good deals. The downside is that it's dangerous to the wallet!

 

Unfortunately, the bug's face is turned towards the center of the amber, so I can't get a view of the mandibles or eyes. 

 

So, I guess I should be calling this a wasp, not an ant or a bee.

 

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a couple of stacked images. The wings show up more clearly in these (as well as other details).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm pleased with the results. Now I'll have to take similar photos of the other bugs.  Sometime, when I have time...

 

Are there any modern wasps or bees that have bulbous ends to their antennae? Keeping in mind that this bug is only a little over a millimeter long. For that matter, are there wasps or bees in this size range today?

 

[Mediospirifer]

11 minutes ago, Mediospirifer said:

Are there any modern wasps or bees that have bulbous ends to their antennae? Keeping in mind that this bug is only a little over a millimeter long. For that matter, are there wasps or bees in this size range today?

 

I should have checked Wiki before posting this question. The smallest known flying insect is a chalcid wasp, of which the smallest is only 0.15 mm long! Here's a link to the Wiki page for them: LINK. I notice that several of the images of different species have clubbed antennae and fringed wings, like my specimen. They're know to date back to the Cretaceous.

 

So, I have a wasp, probably a chalcid wasp, possibly family Myrmaridae ("Fairy fly"). This keeps on getting cooler!

 

[gieserguy]

Very interesting! Thanks for the update!

[gieserguy]

I was just looking at the pictures again, and you can totally see the fringy bits on the edge of the wings!

 

I also just found a paper about Mymaridae from Burmese amber. Heres the link - link!

[gieserguy]

Here's another good link - bug list!

It's a compiled list of bugs found in Burmese amber!

[Mediospirifer]

6 hours ago, gieserguy said:

I was just looking at the pictures again, and you can totally see the fringy bits on the edge of the wings!

 

I also just found a paper about Mymaridae from Burmese amber. Heres the link - link!

 

1 minute ago, gieserguy said:

Here's another good link - bug list!

It's a compiled list of bugs found in Burmese amber!

 

Thanks!

 

I'll have to take an in-depth look at those.

 

At a quick look, I'm tempted to send an email to the authors of the first, with the question of have they seen bugs quite like mine. I'll have to research what the nomenclature is first, though, and count some segments. 

 

The second link calls for a lot of research. Off to Wiki... and probably Google Scholar.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some very nice pieces! 

Thanks for sharing.