Aquatic Insects in Baltic Amber / Wasserinsekten im Baltischen Bernstein

Description:

Bilingual English/German. Amber originates from the resin of extinct trees that grew in a Fennoscandian montane forest approximately 40-50 million years ago. About 25% of all animal specimens enclosed in Baltic amber are aquatic insects. Most of these insects are amphibious and inhabit aquatic ecosystems at least in their larval stages. This book illustrates examples of amber inclusions from the orders Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, aquatic Hemiptera (Heteroptera), aquatic Neuroptera, Megaloptera, aquatic Coleoptera, Trichoptera and aquatic Diptera, including Amphipoda and Isopoda amongst the crustaceans. A number of fossilised dipteran and neuropteran species of Baltic amber are described for the first time. Interestingly, the high abundance of aquatic insects in Baltic amber is directly related to the genesis of amber. One chapter disccusses the formation of amber and the palaeoecology of the Eocene ''amber forest''. Amber taphocoenosis allow recreations of aquatic systems of the early Tertiary period, fifty million years ago. An appendix contains an updated systematic list of all described aquatic insects and crustaceans of Baltic amber.