Dominican Amber Reticulated Beetle

Description: This amber piece displays a fine member of the Coleoptera, or beetles. There are more species of beetles than there are of any other insect, a fact that led J.S.B. Haldane to say that the creator had an inordinate fondness for beetles. This one is a member of the Cupedidae whose waffle-like elytra (wing covers) earned them the colloquial name of reticulated beetles. They have led a cosmopolitan existence since the early Triassic.