Ceratopogonidae

Ceratopogonidae is a family of flies colloquially known as no-see-ums, sand flies, or biting midges, generally 1–3 millimetres in length. The family includes more than 5,000 species, distributed worldwide, apart from the Antarctic and the Arctic. Ceratopogonidae midges are also one of the best-studied cocoa pollinators.

Ceratopogonidae

Scott Bauer, USDA ARS · Public Domain · 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
biting midgePBDB
Sits inside
ChironomoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 137 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 139.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 89 of 976 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 178 of 976 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 976 occurrencesEocene — about 443 of 976 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 40 of 976 occurrencesMiocene — about 220 of 976 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 976 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 976 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–128 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 43 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 24 occurrences118–114 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 8 occurrences109–104 Mya — about 5 occurrences104–99 Mya — about 13 occurrences99–95 Mya — about 26 occurrences95–90 Mya — about 25 occurrences90–85 Mya — about 8 occurrences85–80 Mya — about 45 occurrences80–76 Mya — about 37 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 28 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–52 Mya — about 16 occurrences52–47 Mya — about 17 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 6 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 6 occurrences38–33 Mya — about 398 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences28–24 Mya — about 34 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 37 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 183 occurrences14–9.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences137.05 Mya11.7 ka142 Mya0 Mya

976 occurrences of Ceratopogonidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

976 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

23 formations

Barstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WForemost — 49.83°N, 111.70°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WRaritan — 40.43°N, 74.33°WNaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°EArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WEscucha — 40.80°N, 0.81°WMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.72°WLas Penosas — 43.31°N, 4.45°WYanigua — 18.98°N, 69.45°WBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WDolgan — 70.17°N, 86.82°ELa Toca — 19.55°N, 70.61°WDunstan — 45.48°S, 169.31°EBattle — 49.24°N, 105.21°WHollín — 0.71°S, 77.79°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EDurlston — 50.60°N, 1.95°WPomahaka — 46.01°S, 169.24°EKabaw — 21.68°N, 94.08°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WHarudi — 23.72°N, 68.84°E

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The named rock units Ceratopogonidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 667 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceratopogonidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Ceratopogonidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

5,916 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 168 sites for Ceratopogonidae, 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

97 references

Each of the 976 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. 85 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 Ceratopogonidae

Credit
Scott Bauer, USDA ARS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ceratopogonidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itChironomoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newman 1834