Age: Oligocene-Miocene.
Location: Mina la Cumbre, Dominican Republic.
Fossil resin of vegetable origin that comes from the legume Hymenaea protera, dated between 25 and 40 million years.
Dominican amber differs from Baltic amber by being more transparent, and by having a greater number of fossils.
This piece contains a psocóptero commonly known as book louse.
Psocoptera live in environments with high humidity, such as houses with
humidity, or new houses before the walls dry out, barns, cellars, etc. These
species generally lack wings and are frequent on paper and books that are or
were damp, which is why they are known as book, dust or straw lice.
Species that live in the field are found on plants, tree bark, under rocks... and generally have well-developed wings. Winged species have four membranous wings; occasionally the forewings are well developed and the hindwings are vestigial, while the hindwings far exceed the abdominal apex when the animal is at rest; In addition, the four wings remain in the roof when perched.
Psocoptera feed on various materials of plant and animal origin such as
fungal mycelia, damaged cereal grains, pollen, dead insects, and insect eggs.
Those who live among the books feed on the fungus that grows on the glue.
Weight: 0,5 g
Measures: 1,8 cm x 1 cm
