Preserved insects shed new light on India’s history

A VAST collection of bees, termites, spiders, flies and ants dating back 53 million years has challenged assumptions about India’s early history.

The bugs, preserved in lumps of amber, show that India was not cut off from the rest of the world before joining the Asian continent 50 million years ago.

When India was an island there must have been a flow of small creatures travelling between it and the mainland.