FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



Pupae. — These live in the water and breathe air Hke mos- 

 quito pup£e. In all of them there is a large thorax from 

 which the pair of air-tubes projects up like ears (Fig. 228). 



Chironomus. — Chironomus larvs live in tubes on the sur- 

 face of the mud in pools. The best known ones are brilliant 

 red, and are called blood-worms, their prolegs (Fig. 228) dis- 

 tinguishing them from the true worms, Tubifex, that are also 

 called blood-worms. Larvae of Chironomus have prolegs on 

 the first and twelfth segments of the body, and on the eleventh 

 there are two pairs of long "blood-gills," thin-walled sacs 

 into which blood can flow freely (Fig. 228). Larvas of various 

 chironomids are from an eighth of an inch to an inch long. 



The eggs are laid in strings of jelly, in which they are set 

 in patterns characteristic of the species. 



Fig. 229. — Midge, Cidicoides, called "punkies": 

 I, larva; 2, adult. 



"Punkies," Culicoides. — In Maine the Indians call these 

 midges "No-see-ums. " There are great numbers of these 

 biting flies in the northern forest country. A trader's expe- 

 rience at a lodging house on the Kippewa River in Quebec is 

 one of many. The lamp had been left lighted in his room for 

 several hours, and the flies had gathered on all white covers 

 and formed "literally a blanket of punkies upon his bed." 



Adults of Culicoides (Fig. 229), Ceratopogon, and several 

 other allied genera of the Chironomidce share the same com- 



292 



