78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The family is very abundant in amber, Loew having found seven 

 species of Tanypus, more than forty of Chironomus 

 and twenty-six of Ceratopogon. Giebel also describes 

 two species of Chironomus and one of Ceratopogon 

 in amber, and these genera had previously been recognized as 

 occurring there by Burmeister, Erickson and others. Duisberg 

 also records a peculiar genus, S e n d e 11 a , from the same. 

 But the occurrence of the family in a fossil state is not confined 

 to amber ; thirteen species of Chironomus have been 

 described from Rott, Oeningen, Rodoboj, and Utah, and the genus 

 has been recognized also in Wyoming, while numerous pupae 

 distinguishable as belonging to several species are recorded by 

 Heyden from Rott. Ceratopogon has also a species at Rott, and 

 it has been recognized at Aix and in Sicilian amber. Numerous 

 specimens of the family occur at Florissant, but they are usually 

 in very poor condition; they have also occurred in the British 

 Columbian tertiaries. Scudder (1886). 



Economic importance 



The only function of the imago of the Chiromomid, 

 at least in the group Chironomus, and perhaps Tanypus 

 also, is that of reproduction. Miall and Hammond (1900) say, 

 " It is evident that Chironomus does not feed in the winged 

 state. The mouth parts, though of elaborate structure, are never 

 used in feeding, and the alimentary canal of the fly is empty, 

 except for a greenish fluid, which fills the stomach of the pupa 

 and newly hatched fly. . . . The larvae of Chironomus feed 

 on dead leaves and other vegetable refuse. Microscopic examina- 

 tion of the contents of the stomach reveals a blackish mass of 

 vegetable fragments, besides Diatoms, Infusoria, eggs of other 

 aquatic animals and grains of sand." 



Some species of the group Ceratopogon are blood suckers 

 and their mouth parts as figured by Professor Kellogg (1899) 

 seem admirably adapted to this function. 



The larvae and pupae of the C h i r o n o m i d a e are of much 

 importance as fish-food. Professor Needham (1903, p.204) men- 

 tions the fact that large numbers of the larvae of a species of 

 Chironomus were taken from the stomachs of brook trout, 



