Fossil Fly (Love Bug), Plecia pealei, Eocene, USA

Description

SIZE (Picture scale cube=1cm): 40-45mm (Range)

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Name: Plecia pealei (Love Bug)
Specimen: Fly in Oil Shale Matrix
Age: Eocene Period (45-50 Million Years Old)
Location Found: Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA

Plecia pealei aka Lovebug or March Fly is a prehistoric species from the Bibionidae family of flies (Diptera). These fossils were found in the “Fish Layers”, not the more common “Leaf Layers”, of the Green River Formation of Wyoming, USA. These Bibionid Fly specimens have wonderful detail preserved, even the wings and legs are easily visible.

Prehistoric insects are various groups of insects that lived before recorded history and formed a very important part of the food chain, as they do today. Insects have inhabited the Earth since before the time of the dinosaurs, with the earliest identifiable insect fossil being the Devonian Rhyniognatha hirsti, a Springtail, estimated to have lived 407 to 396 million years ago! One of the main differences between modern insects and prehistoric insects, like many other creatures of prehistory, was their size. Prehistoric varieties tended to be much larger than their modern-day equivalents. This size difference is thought to be due to higher atmospheric oxygen levels, higher temperatures and the absence of birds as key predators of insect life.