Syrphidae

Hoverflies or hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphids, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering, maintaining a spot in the air as part of their display behavior; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae (maggots) eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprotrophs, specifically detritivores, eating decaying plant and animal matter in the soil or in ponds and streams. In other species, the larvae are insectivores, preying on aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects.

Syrphidae

Alvesgaspar · 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
hover flyPBDB
Sits inside
CyclorrhaphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 136 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 136 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 136 occurrencesEocene — about 94 of 136 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 27 of 136 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 136 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 136 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 136 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 11 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 7 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 67 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 11 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 5 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 14 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 8 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.4–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka103 Mya0 Mya

136 occurrences of Syrphidae 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

136 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

17 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 108.00°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 39.79°N, 109.07°WGreen River — 39.47°N, 108.45°WGreen River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°ETranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°WRandeck Maar — 48.57°N, 9.53°EWasatch — 39.79°N, 108.57°WCreede — 37.84°N, 106.92°WSalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°ERita Blanca — 35.71°N, 102.45°WRenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EAntero — 39.11°N, 105.71°WMost — 50.57°N, 13.73°EÚstí — 50.76°N, 14.24°E

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The named rock units Syrphidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 66 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Syrphidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Syrphidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,892 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 57 sites for Syrphidae, 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

47 references

Each of the 136 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. 35 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 Syrphidae

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

No 3D scan of Syrphidae 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 itCyclorrhapha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1802