The story of amber obviously begins with pitch, or resin. And the story of resin focuses on trees which exude large quantities of the gooey stuff. But in the tropics the champion resin-producers are in the genus Hymenaea. These leguminous, flowering trees pump out astonishing quantities of the sticky stuff, probably as a defense against the many species of insects living in tropical forests.
Termites have a better fossil record than most other insects.
They are found in amber, as shown here, or in petrified wood, which may contain traces of their nests and galleries. Photograph by Laurie Minor-Penland. Courtesy National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution . In the case of bark beetles, there are excellent studies showing how resin defeats them. But the beetles are evolving.