Bibionidae

Bibionidae is a family of flies (Diptera) containing approximately 650–700 species worldwide. Adults are nectar feeders and emerge in numbers in spring. Because of the likelihood of adult flies being found in copula, they have earned colloquial names such as "love bugs" or "honeymoon flies".

Bibionidae

Pierre Duhem · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
march flyPBDB
Sits inside
BibionoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 5 of 868 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 28 of 868 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 868 occurrencesEocene — about 207 of 868 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 377 of 868 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 192 of 868 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 46 of 868 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 868 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–115 Mya — about 1 occurrence115–111 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 8 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 16 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 3 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–56 Mya — about 6 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 47 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 38 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 5 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 100 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 101 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 146 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 146 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 51 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 33 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 88 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 14 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 56 occurrences121.4 Mya129 ka128 Mya0 Mya

868 occurrences of Bibionidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

868 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

44 formations

Niveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.60°N, 7.25°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EAllenby — 49.44°N, 120.54°WAllenby — 49.37°N, 120.59°WAllenby — 49.48°N, 120.54°WAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.59°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°ESalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGreen River — 42.00°N, 107.00°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 41.82°N, 110.76°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 40.01°N, 108.11°WGreen River — 39.79°N, 109.07°WGreen River — 39.83°N, 108.06°WRenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WCypris — 50.08°N, 12.54°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°ENagano — 31.88°N, 130.34°ETranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°WSkarðsströnd–Mókollsdalur — 65.51°N, 21.53°WCalcaires de Vacheres — 43.90°N, 5.81°ETogo — 31.89°N, 130.36°EMonteils — 44.09°N, 4.18°EEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°ELatah — 46.53°N, 116.79°WLatah — 47.65°N, 117.44°WChojabaru — 33.78°N, 129.80°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ECreede — 37.84°N, 106.92°W

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The named rock units Bibionidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 351 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bibionidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Bibionidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

7,349 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 205 sites for Bibionidae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

144 references

Each of the 868 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 132 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Bibionidae

Credit
Pierre Duhem
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBibionoidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fleming 1821