Lestes

Lestes is a widespread genus of damselflies in the family Lestidae. Species occur throughout much of the world and are commonly known as spreadwings.

Lestes

Siga · 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
LestidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB, for Odonata
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Odonata
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Odonata
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odonata
Environment
freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Odonata

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 41 occurrencesPaleocene — about 6 of 41 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 4 of 41 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 41 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 41 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 41 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 4 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–7.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.2–5.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.7–516 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence61.66 Mya2.58 Mya67 Mya516 ka

41 occurrences of Lestes 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

41 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

Campagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EShanghu — 25.12°N, 114.30°EShanghu — 25.08°N, 114.17°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WNongshan — 25.08°N, 114.17°ENongshan — 25.29°N, 114.50°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ECalcàries de Tàrrega — 41.64°N, 1.32°EBembridge Marls — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°EWiesbaden — 49.97°N, 8.30°E

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The named rock units Lestes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lestes and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Lestes and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

1,203 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Lestes, 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

27 references

Each of the 41 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. 15 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 Lestes

Credit
Siga
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lestes 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 itLestidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leach 1815)