Chironomidae

Chironomidae, commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids, are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid species superficially resemble mosquitoes, they can be distinguished by the absence of the wing scales and elongated mouthparts characteristic of the Culicidae.

Chironomidae

Uncredited · Attribution · 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
non biting midgePBDB
Sits inside
ChironomoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 205 million years on record.

The record covers at least 205.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 211.18 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 2 of 574 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 6 of 574 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 574 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 58 of 574 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 74 of 574 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 20 of 574 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 574 occurrencesEocene — about 270 of 574 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 41 of 574 occurrencesMiocene — about 24 of 574 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 574 occurrencesPleistocene — about 55 of 574 occurrences215–208 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences208–201 Mya — about 1 occurrence187–180 Mya — about 5 occurrences180–172 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences172–165 Mya — about 4 occurrences165–158 Mya — about 9 occurrences158–151 Mya — about 14 occurrences151–144 Mya — about 33 occurrences144–136 Mya — about 8 occurrences136–129 Mya — about 6 occurrences129–122 Mya — about 31 occurrences122–115 Mya — about 24 occurrences115–108 Mya — about 6 occurrences108–101 Mya — about 1 occurrence101–93 Mya — about 6 occurrences86–79 Mya — about 6 occurrences79–72 Mya — about 3 occurrences72–65 Mya — about 6 occurrences65–57 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences57–50 Mya — about 47 occurrences50–43 Mya — about 32 occurrences43–36 Mya — about 93 occurrences36–29 Mya — about 102 occurrences29–22 Mya — about 40 occurrences22–14 Mya — about 14 occurrences14–7.2 Mya — about 7 occurrences7.2–0 Mya — about 74 occurrences205.7 Mya11.7 ka215 Mya0 Mya

574 occurrences of Chironomidae 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

574 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

62 formations

Argiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WKap København — 82.32°N, 23.85°WUda — 52.37°N, 111.25°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WGlushkovo — 51.71°N, 116.93°EGlushkovo — 51.74°N, 117.36°EGlushkovo — 51.92°N, 117.62°EGlushkovo — 51.82°N, 117.17°ESharteg — 44.14°N, 95.78°ENaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGurvan-Eren — 46.38°N, 93.95°EGurvan-Eren — 46.99°N, 95.46°EGurvan-Eren — 48.07°N, 91.65°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EUkurei — 52.31°N, 117.04°EUkurei — 52.53°N, 116.76°EUkurei — 52.57°N, 116.98°EBarstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 108.00°WGreen River — 38.90°N, 109.20°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WLaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°ELaiyang — 36.76°N, 120.64°ERita Blanca — 35.71°N, 102.45°WKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WChorrillo — 50.51°S, 72.56°WKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°ELulworth — 51.08°N, 1.98°WItat — 56.17°N, 93.17°EPomahaka — 46.01°S, 169.24°EFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Chironomidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 297 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chironomidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Chironomidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

6,122 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 182 sites for Chironomidae, 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

137 references

Each of the 574 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. 125 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 Chironomidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Chironomidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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. Macquart 1838