a
super rare Ripiphorid or Wedge Shaped Parasitoid Beetle with bizarre comblike
antennae
in an authentic Dominican Amber Gemstone
excavated in the La Bucara amber mine in late Summer of 2009
this
specimen has been examined by paleoentomologists at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City
DR9478
$750.00 No Reserve
| from wikipedia.com ..."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 roaches.
They often have abbreviated elytra, and branched antennae.
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." Ripiphorid adults are ephemeral in that
the adults live for only a few hours perhaps less than 48 hours. Their
bizarre comblike antennae help the males locate females that emitting
pheromones. |
Some photos of our amber excavations in August 2007 at La Toca and La Bucara amber mines
Description |
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). |
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