220 FLEAS, FLUKES AND CUCKOOS 



which are far commoner and are distributed throughout England and 

 Scotland. King Lear may have had the latter species in mind when he 

 spoke of "the small gilded fly." The body of the female is covered in 

 dense, gleaming, golden scaly hairs, and on the wing it resembles a 

 little ball of light. It sucks the blood of geese. 



Biting Midges (Geratopogonidae) 



Midges suck the juices of flowers and pierce the wing- veins of dragon- 

 flies, butterflies, moths and lace-wings, and many small insects are 

 caught and devoured whole. One British genus only, Culicoides (Plate 

 XXIX), of which some thirty species are found in this country, feeds on 

 the blood of mammals and birds. The development of the parasitic 

 habit in this family is therefore particularly easy to follow. Relatively 

 little, however, is known about them or their life histories. 



Midges are minute flies, only a few millimetres in length. The female 

 alone sucks blood — generally at dusk or by night, but sometimes in 

 blazing sunshine. The eggs are laid on moist soil or near water and the 

 larva and pupa are aquatic or live in damp soil. Unlike those of gnats 

 they can survive quite long periods out of the water without suflering 

 any ill effects. Sometimes they breed in the liquid running from manure 

 heaps, the sap seeping from gashes in trees or moist decaying 

 vegetable matter. One Japanese midge which attacks hens, breeds in 

 their dung. 



There are no definite records of Culicoides biting birds in Britain 

 although it is fairly certain that most of the species do so. In the United 

 States large numbers of C. biguttatus^ closely related to C. fascipennis, 

 were found gorged with blood in the nests of crows and magpies. 

 Although they are so small, midges are cruel and persistent biters. 

 They do not fly in the wind, but they can soon take the romance out of 

 a still summer evening. C. impunctatus is a major pest in the west of 

 Scotland, "where its presence in conjunction with the kilt is said to have 

 given rise to the Highland Fling." 



House-flies (Muscidae), Blue-bottles (Calliphoridae) 

 AND Nest-flies (Carnidae) 



Most of the house-fly group are not blood suckers, but the African 

 tsetse flies (Glossina) attack both mammals and birds. The stable-fly 



