This is a beautifully preserved extremely rare large Stratiomyidae or Soldier Fly in an authentic Dominican amber gemstone. Many of you will recognize this fly as being one of the 4 Dominican amber specimens on the cover of Dr. George Poinar's 1992 book Life in Amber. From Dr. Poinar page 181-182 "The medium to large-sized adults of this family are often brightly colored and occur on flowers. Some resemble bees and wasps, an as such are similar to hover flies. The larvae occur in water, in decaying matter, or under bark, where they feed on plant material or are predaceous on other invertebrates. The oldest know representative of this family is Cretaceogaster pygmaeus Teskey (1971) from Canadian amber. Although considered extinct, its closest relative, Parhadrestia, occurs in Chile, where it is represented by two extant species. The similarity between the two genera is discussed by Woodley (1986) who placed both in the new subfamily Parhadrestinae."
This specimen has been examined by paleoentomologists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

This specimen is offered here for $425.00 complete satisfaction guaranteed. To view photos and videos of our some of our amber excavations in the blue amber mines in mountains of the Dominican Republic and to see a small java applet of the amber mines click here - (opens in a new browser window). Our amber comes direct from the Dominican Republic amber mines east of the world famous La Toca amber mine. These specimens do not go through any middle men, we acquire these specimens from the miners and mine owners directly at the amber mines.