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Dominican Amber with Inclusions - 4 flies + more

haninate — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:47:21 +0000

This is another piece of Dominican amber(2.1g) from my La Bucara mines collection. I believe it has a semi-green coloration while under natural light. There are 6 inclusions in this specimen – 4 flies(2 of which have a plunger-shaped mouth), a fulgoroid, and a parasitic wasp.

Dominican Amber with Inclusions - Enhydros

haninate — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Time again for another amber piece from the La Bucara Mines of the Dominican Republic! This is a super fascinating piece as it not only contains 3 insects but also 5 obvious enhydro bubbles. The insects present include a beetle, fly and gall gnat. An enhydro is an air bubble trapped inside a pocket of water. Using a quadrupole mass spectrometer to analyse the composition of these air bubbles, scientists can learn what the atmosphere was like when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Upon close inspection, one can notice the air bubbles moving within the water(I tried my best to capture this movement, check out pictures14-18).

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Dominican Amber with Inclusions

haninate — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:54:50 +0000

I have quite a number of amber pieces in my collection and I hope to eventually finish photographing all their close ups. Here is yet another piece from the La Bucara mines of the Dominican Republic. This 1.6g piece has 2 winged ants(1 of which is from the Ponerinae family) and a couple of midges(very hard to see amongst the bubbles).

Dominican Amber with Inclusions

haninate — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:58:47 +0000

Here is another piece of amber from the La Bucara mines of the Dominican Republic. I have always been fascinated with amber because of how well preserved inclusions can be. This particular 3.9g piece has 3 insects; a psocopteran with wings, a parasitic wasp, and a fulgoroid.

Dominican Amber with multiple inclusions

haninate — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:08:21 +0000

I have been experimenting with a new set up for microphotography and these are the results. The following specimen is a cabochon shaped piece of amber from the La Bucara mines of the Dominican Republic. The amber contains a menagerie of about a dozen insects(many are not visible to the naked eye) including a gnat that appears to be laying eggs. I managed to obtain as many closeups of each insect I could spot, let me know if there can be improvements to the quality of the pictures!

Baltic Amber - Caddisflies and more!

haninate — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:55:05 +0000

The following specimen is a large piece of amber from the Baltic region of Lithuania. Baltic amber is Eocene in age (44-50 M.Y.A) and tends to contain less inclusions than Dominican Amber. I have an incoming parcel of several exciting amber specimens that I hope to feature soon! This piece of Baltic amber has many different inclusions – 4 caddisflies, a coccid, and many flies and gnats.

Madagascan Copal with Inclusions - Mosquito!

haninate — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:16:55 +0000

I posted a few days ago about a new mini USB microscope that I bought and decided to start featuring my amber and copal collection. I have always been fascinated by amber, especially pieces with inclusions. To quote David Attenborough(click the link!): “There is a substance so strange and so beautiful that whenever people encountered it, they thought they had found something magical.“ Each piece of amber or copal with inclusions has its own story to tell; it is the perfect time capsule from a long lost era. The following is a piece of copal(or young amber) from Madagascar that is estimated to be around 2 million years old. The species of the tree by which this copal came from is Hymenaea verrucosa and this particular piece has a very large mosquito preserved in it among other inclusions. I have plenty of other amber and copal pieces that I will be featuring(it takes a while to shoot all the insects in a piece), so please stay tuned!

New toy - More to come!

haninate — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:05:19 +0000

Yesterday the USB microscope that I ordered finally arrived! Its not the best piece of viewing equipment(its a pretty cheap entry level microscope) but I hope to use it to feature my amber and copal specimens. Here is a small sneak peak at the things to come!