Plecia

Plecia is a genus of March flies (Bibionidae) comprising many species, both extant and fossilised. Several species of this genus are commonly known as "lovebugs" due to their behavior of flying around coupled together while mating.

Plecia

JMK · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
love bugPBDB
Sits inside
PleciinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 69 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 387 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 387 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 117 of 387 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 207 of 387 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 53 of 387 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 387 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 387 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 19 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 28 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 28 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 6 occurrences46–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 26 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 33 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 34 occurrences29–26 Mya — about 63 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 80 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 15 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 10 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 17 occurrences12–8.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.7–5.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.8–3.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.0–164 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences72.2 Mya2.58 Mya85 Mya164 ka

387 occurrences of Plecia 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

387 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

29 formations

Niveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.60°N, 7.25°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EAllenby — 49.44°N, 120.54°WAllenby — 49.44°N, 120.55°WAllenby — 49.48°N, 120.54°WAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.59°WCampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EGreen River — 42.00°N, 107.00°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 41.82°N, 110.76°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 40.01°N, 108.11°WGreen River — 39.79°N, 109.07°WGreen River — 39.83°N, 108.06°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WSalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ECalcaires de Vacheres — 43.90°N, 5.81°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°ETranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°WNagano — 31.88°N, 130.34°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EChojabaru — 33.78°N, 129.80°Einterbasaltic plant-beds — 56.34°N, 6.23°WWasatch — 39.79°N, 108.57°WHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°EArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°ECypris — 50.08°N, 12.54°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WMae Sot — 19.29°N, 99.63°ERenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WTogo — 31.89°N, 130.36°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plecia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 134 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plecia and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Plecia and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

3,910 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 127 sites for Plecia, 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

76 references

Each of the 387 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. 64 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 Plecia

Credit
JMK
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Plecia 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 itPleciinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wiedemann 1823