Keroplatidae

Keroplatidae is a family of small flies known as fungus gnats. About 950 species are described, but the true number of species is undoubtedly much higher. The long-beaked fungus gnats, formerly placed in a separate family Lygistorrhinidae, have been placed into Keroplatidae as subfamily Lygistorrhininae. They are generally forest dwellers found in the damp habitats favoured by their host fungi. They can also often be found in caves. Larvae both feed on fungi and are predatory - they can spin webs by secreting acid fluids, which they use to kill smaller invertebrates and capture spores. Some of the predatory larvae cannibalize pupa of their own species. The family notably includes three genera containing bioluminescent larvae.

Keroplatidae

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
Also called
predatory fungus gnatPBDB
Sits inside
SciaroideaPBDB
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 4 of 106 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 17 of 106 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 106 occurrencesEocene — about 67 of 106 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 106 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 106 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 106 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 106 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences109–104 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences104–99 Mya — about 4 occurrences99–95 Mya — about 11 occurrences95–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences57–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–47 Mya — about 6 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–33 Mya — about 54 occurrences28–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 7 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 8 occurrences14–9.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence137.05 Mya11.7 ka142 Mya0 Mya

106 occurrences of Keroplatidae 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

106 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

13 formations

Argiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WGreen River — 39.60°N, 108.40°WDolgan — 70.17°N, 86.82°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WRandeck Maar — 48.57°N, 9.53°EFur — 56.84°N, 8.99°EØlst — 56.84°N, 8.99°E

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The named rock units Keroplatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 88 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Keroplatidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Keroplatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,955 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 48 sites for Keroplatidae, 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

40 references

Each of the 106 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. 28 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 Keroplatidae

Credit
James K. Lindsey
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Keroplatidae 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 itSciaroidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Rondani 1856)