Five Fat Flies & Flora in Fine Fossil Amber

This is an unusual specimen in that it contains 5 large black flies. Dipterans are common in amber, but normally diminutive. They are in association with floral material that resembles moss. Besides the 5 large Dipterans, there are several of much smaller species. And, as one might expect with food about, there is also a small spider that ostensibly was awaiting its next meal, though I'm sure it would not have has the audacity to take one of the big fat flies.

Insect order Diptera, the true flies (Diptera means two wings) are believed to have first appeared during the Triassic more than 200 million years ago. Thus, they appeared during the great radiation of insects following the Permian extinction. So exquisite is insect design that most groups were well formed by the Cretaceous and remains largely unchanged in appearance during modern times where some 150,000 species occur worldwide, inhabiting every imaginable environment.

The specimen would also make a fine pendant.

In all, an interesting and pretty piece that is very clear and has a fine hand polish, and is a little mortuary for life once animated in an ancient rainforest ecosystem.