Hesperinus

Hesperinus is a genus of flies and the sole genus in the relict family Hesperinidae belonging to the nematoceran infraorder Bibionomorpha. There are about 8 known species, nearly all from the Palaearctic region with one each from the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Three fossil species from Eocene Baltic amber have been described. These flies have long 12-segmented antennae, legs and abdomen and males have well-developed wings while females have a short one. Little is known, but most species have been collected near streams in woodlands.

Hesperinus

Kurina, O. (2013) · CC BY 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
HesperininaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 6.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33.9 Mya27.3 Mya38.2 Mya22.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Hesperinus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

10 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

2 formations

Rott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°W

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The named rock units Hesperinus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hesperinus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Hesperinus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

1,006 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Hesperinus, 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

7 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 Hesperinus

Credit
Kurina, O. (2013)
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hesperinus 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 itHesperininae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walker 1848