TerraTreasures and Adventures101 offer this authentic Dominican Amber gemstone

Description
This is a Super Rare pair of adult Male Ripiphorids or parasitoid beetles with comblike antennae
in an authentic Dominican amber Gemstone. This specimen was excavated in the La Bucara amber mines in the Summer of 2007.

DR7952
$825.00 No Reserve

The family Ripiphoridae (formerly spelled Rhipiphoridae) is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as wedge-shaped beetles containing some 450 species. They are one of the most unusual beetle families, in that they are parasitoids; different groups within the family attack different hosts, but most are associated with bees or vespid wasps, while some others are associated with cockroaches. They often have abbreviated elytra, and branched antennae.From Wikipedia "For those which attack bees, eggs are typically laid on flowers, where they hatch almost immediately into small planidium larvae, which wait for a passing host. They grab onto a bee when it visits the flower, and ride it back to its nest, where they disembark and enter a cell with a host larva. The beetle larva then enters the body of the host larva, where it waits while the larva grows. When the host pupates, the beetle larva migrates to the outside of its body and begins to feed, eventually consuming it."
From the field guide to beetles in California ..."Ripiphorid beetles have hypermetamorphic life cycles, where the larvae start out as active, silverfishlike triungulins and later transform into sedentary grubs. Early instars feed internally on the larvae of other insects, whereas the later stages feed externally on their hosts. Females of the genus Ripiphorus lay their eggs on flowers, Upon hatching the triungulin attaches itself to a solitary bee as it visits flowers and is carried back to the bee's nest. Species of the genus Macros parasitic wasps, whereas other genera attack cockroaches and wood-boring beetles. Adult ripiphorid beetles are ephemeral living for only a day or tow. Consequently the information on their lives is fragmentary. The comb like antennae of the males presumably increase their ability to locate females emitting sexual pheromones."

This beautiful authentic Dominican Amber gemstone is offered here with a complete satisfaction guarantee, if you are not satisfied with your purchase you can return any specimen within 14 days for a full refund.

Dominican Amber
In the Dominican Republic, Hymenaea trees are called Algorrobo. The Hymenaea tree exudes vast amounts of resin which over millions of years of pressure hardens into amber. Generally amber is found because a landslide along a steep slope in the mountains exposes veins of black lignite. If the lignite contains amber it is gradually extracted by digging along the vein with picks and shovels. After the amber is found it is chiseled by hand out of the shaft walls, put into burlap sacks and passed out of the mine where it is separated from the rock by machete. Larger chunks of amber make it possible to view inclusions almost immediately by holding the amber up to sunlight to determine if a large inclusion has been discovered. Fossil bearing amber is polished locally.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).

Shipping and Insurance
Within the USA - shipping and insurance is $5.00 - we ship all specimens US Postal Service Priority Mail. Outside of the USA - shipping and insurance to any country outside of the USA including Canada is $20.00 - we ship US Postal Service Global Express Mail. If you require any other method of shipping please contact us.

Payment
Payment is required within 7 days of the end of the auction. We Accept Pay Pal, US Postal Service Money Orders, Bankers Checks, and Personal Checks. Personal checks take 1 week to clear. Multiple winning auctions can of course be combined for one shipping cost. We ship all specimens upon receipt of payment. Pay us Instantly and Securely with Pay Pal - Ebay's service to make fast, easy, and secure payments for all of your purchases!

About Us
We have been collecting amber in the field and prepping rough fossil amber specimens since 1993. Photographs of our specimens have appeared in National Geographic, Nature, Science, Scientific American, Discover, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and others. We have been featured in PaleoWorld's The Amber Hunters. We offer authentic museum quality Dominican Amber display specimens of rare insects in amber and also authentic rare Dominican rough unprepared amber for sale. Our collections include museum quality rare insects in amber, unusual botanicals and flowers in amber and also rough unprepared Dominican Amber gemstones. We have traveled many times to the Dominican Republic where we have chiseled beautiful amber gemstones out of the lignite layers deep in the amber mines north of Santiago. We have excavated in the Palo Quemado and Los CaCaos blue amber mines and also in La Nueva Toca and the world famous La Toca amber mines way up in the mountains north of Santiago. For many years we have extensively collected mid Cretaceous New Jersey amber in the Raritan formation of central New Jersey and have traveled many times to collect late Cretaceous and early Paleocene amber in the Hanna formation of eastern Wyoming. We have collected mid Cretaceous amber in the Black Creek formation of eastern North Carolina and we have spent weeks collecting mid Cretaceous amber in the northern most Tundra of Alaska. Some of our most recent collecting trips have been in October of 2003 to the western Aleutian Islands some 1000 miles west of Anchorage to explore and collect Miocene amber, August of 2004 and April of 2006 we were back in the Dominican Republic to collect Miocene amber from the Palo Quemado amber mines which have recently closed due to the miners finding little amber, we were back to the Dominican Republic in April of 2006 to video in the La Toca amber mines, and most recently in August of 2007 we excavated in La Toca and La Bucara. The La Toca amber mines had much water whereas on the other ridgeline the La Bucara amber mines were nearly dry! We collected much amber from both La Toca and La Bucara.
We have donated many hundreds of amber specimens to museums in the United States and have several dozen new species of insects in amber named after us. We have examined several thousand specimens of rough Burmese amber and have prepped many new Burmese fossil amber specimens. We have traveled to Europe with colleagues to examine unusual spectacular Dominican Amber specimens in private collections and we consider the amber curators of the museums in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and New York City our friends. Exploring for and collecting amber along with the examination and research of amber is our passion.
To view photos and videos of our some of our amber excavations in the 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.