Amber with Large Homopteran and More than 20 Other Insects

This fossil amber contains a large 10 mm Homopteran (Planthopper) with preservation is as good as it gets, as the pictures will attest. The Homopterans are believed to have appeared during the Permian-time, and are therefore quite ancient in origin. They are today a large group of some 30,000 species that includes cicadas, planthoppers, leafhoppers, aphids, scales; their common claim to fame is that they suck on plants.

The trophy planthopper shares its ancient resin tomb with a plethora of ecosystem inhabitants, 19 various Dipterans, a strange Hemiptera, an ant and a stingless bee (both Hymenopterans).