Mating Queen Ant

I was looking through some specimens of Dominican amber a while ago. One that piece caught my eye was an ant. I ID'd it as a queen - fairly valuable because queen ants are not common and certainly ones in amber are 'rare'. I took some pictures of it and put it aside. The next day, I looked again at the pictures and saw a drone next to the queen. The picture was unusual, so I got out the specimen and looked at it again. Now, I do not buy lottery tickets, but I think I may start. When I looked at the 'pair' - it was really a pair - the drone was mating with the queen.

 

Of course, she still has her nuptial wings on, but would normally loose the wings after she has mated. In this case, she had them 24 million years ago and still has the wings now.

We have a mating pair of ants! I do not know of anything like this anywhere. The odds of the event occurring are slim, the odds of the two landing in resin, not separating, and becoming immortalized is beyond comprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  This is a close up of the top of the queen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, below the queen (ventral).

 


 

 

 

 

Here are some images taken with photo-montage (these are really good images):

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Image 9
Image 10
Image 11
Image 12
Image 13

 

 

 

 

 Body details from the ventral side of the queen.

 

 

 

The Drone

 

 

The size is about .75 inch x .3 inches x .2 inches. It is my feeling that this is a rarest piece of amber in the world - hands down.

 

The price of this unbelievably rare specimen is $98,000.

$98,000