Donacia
Donacia is a large genus of aquatic leaf beetles in the subfamily Donaciinae. Like other members of that subfamily, the beetles have densely pubescent undersides and long antennae. The genus is recognized by the truncate elytral apex and pubescent area above the procoxa. Adults are active and readily take flight. Adults feed on the upper epidermis of host plants; some may be pollen feeders. Larvae feed on the sap of submerged portions of aquatic plants, such as water lilies, sedges (Cyperaceae), Sagittaria (Alismataceae), Sparganium (Typhaceae), pond weed (Potamogeton). They are believed to breathe oxygen from plant vessels as well as cutaneously. Adults live on surface parts of the same plants but can go under water for extended periods because of their plastron.

James K. Lindsey · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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- Sits inside
- DonaciiniPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta
Time the record covers
At least 61 million years on record.
The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 11.7 ka.
143 occurrences of Donacia on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
143 occurrencesThese 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
22 formations
- Uonuma Formation27
- Tsubusagawa Formation12
- Highbury Silts and Sands Formation11
- Mizozono Formation8
- Hirabaru Formation5
- Bushi Formation4
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The named rock units Donacia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 49 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Donacia and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Donacia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,809 taxa- Aphodius24 sites
- Carabidae23 sites
- Coleoptera21 sites
- Curculionidae20 sites
- Stenus18 sites
- Donaciinae16 sites
- Plateumaris constricticollis16 sites
- Gyrinus15 sites
- Staphylinidae15 sites
- Hydraena14 sites
- Aleocharinae13 sites
- Dytiscidae12 sites
- Oulimnius troglodytes12 sites
- Anotylus rugosus11 sites
- Bembidion11 sites
- Ilybius11 sites
- Plateumaris11 sites
- Rhynchaenus quercus11 sites
- Apion10 sites
- Chrysomelidae10 sites
- Dryops10 sites
- Dyschiriodes globosus10 sites
- Elateridae10 sites
- Limnius volckmari10 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Donacia, and this reads all of them. 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
41 references- Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene donaciine fossils from the Uonuma Formation in Higashikubiki hills, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, with description of a new species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Donaciinae)18
- Middle Pleistocene deposits at Frog Hall Pit, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, English Midlands, and their implications for the age of the type Wolstonian16
- Fossil insects and their paleoenvironments of the Pliocene Tsubusagawa Formation in Ajimu Basin, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan12
- Marine Isotope Stage 9 environments of fluvial deposits at Hackney, north London, UK11
- Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene donaciine fossils from the Uonuma Formation (part II): a new Donacia from the Uonuma hills in Niigata Prefecture, Japan (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Donaciinae)9
- Late Pleistocene insects from the Mizozono Formation in Yoshimatsu-cho, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan8
- Beitrag zur Kenntnis der eozänen Arthopodenfauna des Geiseltales6
- Middle Pleistocene fossil insects from the Hirabaru Formation of Kitsuki City, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan5
- Insect fossil assemblage and paleoenvironments from the Early Pleistocene Bushi Formation in Saitama Prefecture, Japan4
- Late Devensian river deposits beneath the floodplain terrace of the River Thames at Abingdon, Berkshire, England4
- Fossil arthropods of British Columbia 8. The genus Donacia in British Columbia lignite3
- Monographie der Schilfkäfer II. Die fossilen Funde und ihre Bestimmung (13. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Donaciinen)3
Each of the 143 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. 29 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 Donacia
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- James K. Lindsey
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Donacia”
- 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 itDonaciini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fabricius 1775