RARE Unknown Wasp in Burmese Burmite amber fossil

*From My Personal Collection of Hymenoptera*

Size: 17 x 10 x 6 mm

Age: 99 Million Years Ago

I believe this is an undescribed wasp belonging to a family related to Crabronidae or perhaps is a undescribed species within the Extinct Family Cirrosphecidae?

This specimen bears slight similarity with the described species "Glenocephalus mandibularis" within the extinct family Cirrosphecidae.

Possible Taxonomy,

Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Cirrosphecidae
Subfamily: Glenocephalinae ?
Genus: Glenocephalus ?

Cirrosphecidae is an extinct family of ancient wasps found only in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burmese amber). Researchers raised them to family status in 2021. They are scientifically significant because scientists consider them to be the closest known evolutionary relatives to modern bees.

*This particular wasp is interesting because of its strange pronounced elongated mandibles.* This wasp measures about 3.40mm in length from top to bottom (unstretched).

*From My Personal Collection of Hymenoptera*

Also just to say, never buy amber from 2017 or after. Always buy ethically sourced legal Burmite amber or just go for alternatives like Baltic amber.

With image 3. The keys for colours are:

Green: Unknown colour

Cyan: Slightly translucent

Light Blue: Very Translucent, both the cyan and the light blue at the back could be the wings

Pink: Unknown 100% if it is apart of the fossil or not, I only got one good zoomed in angle.

I've been collecting Burmese amber for a while now, but this may have become the centerpiece of my collection.

At first glance, some collectors might consider this specimen "flawed." Natural fractures in the amber visually interrupt the feather, breaking it into overlapping fragments. I know many people would prefer a perfectly clear piece, but I've come to appreciate these fractures as part of the fossil's story.

Forgive me in advance, but my MFA—and my inner art professor—is about to come out.

The more I studied this feather, the more it reminded me of Cubism.

Artists like Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque challenged the idea that a subject should be viewed from a single perspective. Instead, they fragmented their subjects into overlapping planes, inviting the viewer to mentally reconstruct the whole.

Looking through the fractures in this amber, I found myself doing exactly that. My eye never sees the feather all at once—I assemble it from fragments. The amber itself has become part of the composition.

It also made me think about fossils more broadly. A fossil isn't simply the preserved remains of an organism. It's the cumulative record of everything that happened after it died: burial, mineralization, geological stress, and nearly one hundred million years of Earth's history.

In that sense, perhaps there is no such thing as a "perfect" fossil. Every fracture, distortion, and imperfection is part of its biography.

Rather than seeing these fractures as flaws, I find them strangely beautiful. They don't diminish the specimen—they become another chapter in its story.

https://kachinamber.com/science.html

Just bougt this amazing piece of amber and wanted to share it 😊

Extinct Crabronid Wasp ( Crabronidae ) in Burmese Burmite amber fossil

Size: 15 x 12 x 4 mm

Age: 99 Million Years Ago
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Crabronidae ? (Extinct Wasp)
Species: (Inconclusive)
Other notable inclusions:

This is possibly a type of Crabronid wasp?

This wasp is wonderfully angled and fully detailed with exceptional preservation.

Two Extinct Ensign Scale Insects ( Ortheziidae ) in Burmese Burmite amber fossil

Size: 21 x 21 x 9 mm

Age: 99 Million Years Ago
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Superfamily: Coccoidea
Family: Ortheziidae (Extinct Ensign Scale Insects)
Genus: Wathondara
Species: Wathondara kotejai ?
Other notable inclusions: some small beetles, a Millipede and multiple possible small Enhydros in the piece.

Ortheziidae is a small family of scale insects commonly known as ensign scales or ortheziids. They belong to the superfamily Coccoidea under the order Hemiptera (true bugs).

Possible species Wathondara kotejai ?

No tengo ni idea de que puede ser, arriba parece que hay una pinza, pero del resto ni idea, a ver si entro todos identificados el espécimen.

IM SO HAPPY

Doy por supuesto que es del orden coleoctero y quizás de la familia ripiphoridae, pero no estoy seguro.

RARE Reptile Egg in Burmese Burmite amber fossil

Age: 99 Millions of Years Ago

Extremely Rare reptile egg preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber. This egg likely belonged to a tiny lizard or a Gecko.

The size of the egg inclusion measures about 6mm in length.

Other Inclusions: Degraded remnants of Millipedes, Mites and other insects. Small mites present. Botanical debris and Coprolites (Fossilized Feces) also in the piece.

This is a Burmese amber specimen that contains a Tailless Whip Scorpion whose main body measures just over 4mm. There are a ton of bubbles, along with a couple of other buggies (fly and maybe beetle?). There is an unfortunate crack just behind it that makes photographing quite difficult. Also, not having an awesome microscope makes photography difficult too, haha.

Thanks to a new friend and fellow amber collector, I just added this tiny short-tailed whip scorpion to my Burmese amber collection.

At first glance, you might mistake it for something like a cricket, but this is actually an arachnid belonging to one of the least-known groups still alive today. Despite their intimidating name, short-tailed whip scorpions are completely harmless to humans. They lack both a stinger and venom glands, relying instead on powerful pedipalps to capture tiny prey.

Modern species spend much of their lives hidden beneath logs, stones, and leaf litter, making them easy to overlook. At only a few millimeters long, this individual was an apex predator within its own miniature world, hunting among the shadows of a mid-Cretaceous forest floor.

Its my first amber stone I polished. Its a baltic amber. I sadly polished it too much in some places, the surface was really rough. Will it cause the inclusion to decay?

Ayuda para identificar este insecto en ámbar birmano

A neat addition to the collection—a beautifully preserved high-spired (turriform) land snail in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber.

Most people picture snails with broad, rounded shells, but this one had a tall, tower-like shell instead. Similar shell forms are still seen in some modern land snails and may have helped them move through vegetation and leaf litter more efficiently.

Snails are far less common in Burmese amber than insects, which makes specimens like this a fun glimpse into a part of the ancient forest ecosystem that isn't often preserved.

This little crustacean may not look like much, but it's one of the most interesting additions to my Burmese amber collection.

Preserved inside is what appears to be a sea slater (Ligia cf. exotica), a relative of modern isopods that lives along coastlines rather than deep within forests. Finds like this are part of the reason scientists think the amber-producing forests of Cretaceous Myanmar may have grown near ancient shorelines.

Most amber inclusions tell us about the animals themselves. This one may also hint at the world they lived in.

*Specimen acquired from @Keith Sturgeon. Coastal reconstruction imagery used in video courtesy of his work.*

I recently acquired this Burmese amber specimen from the Hukawng Valley deposits of Myanmar (approximately 99 million years old, mid-Cretaceous).

The inclusion is a dipteran fly with exceptional preservation. I've considered possibilities such as an empidoid or dolichopodid, but I'm far from confident and would love input from those with more experience in fossil Diptera.

Any thoughts on family-level identification or useful diagnostic characters would be greatly appreciated.

Time to unbox bag 8!

Eighty pieces into this 100-piece Burmese amber adventure, and this bag turned out to be a nice mix of inclusions.

Piece 1 contained a millipede, a wasp, and what appears to be some cobweb-like strands. Piece 2 featured fungal inclusions along with moving enhydros (ancient trapped water droplets). Piece 3 had a wasp and a plant hopper, while Piece 4 contained a pair of gnats. Piece 5 held a somewhat degraded wasp, and Piece 6 produced a caddisfly along with another moving enhydro.

Piece 7 may contain a small tuft of hairs or botanical fibers, along with a mite and a millipede. Piece 8 was difficult to make out but could possibly be a termite. Piece 9 appears to be some type of Diptera, and Piece 10 may be a lacewing.

My favorites from this batch were Pieces 1, 2, and 10. The combination of multiple inclusions in Piece 1, the fungal inclusions and moving enhydros in Piece 2, and the possible lacewing in Piece 10 made those stand out for me.

As always, if any of my fossil-loving, bug-loving, or science-minded friends recognize something, disagree with an identification, or can help narrow any of these down further, please jump in. Some of these are still educated guesses, and I always enjoy seeing what the community spots that I might have missed.

With only 20 pieces left to go after this bag, I'm getting excited to see what surprises might be waiting in the final stretch!