DIPTERA 



803 



3t to members of this family except where it has become firmly estab- 

 lished as a part of a specific name. The wheat-midge and the clover- 

 seed midge are examples of names of this kind ; it would not be wise 

 to attempt to change these names, although the insects they represent 

 belong to the gall-gnat family, and hence are not true midges. 



R. ^. + 3 



Fig. 1017. — Wing of Chironomus. 



Midges often appear in large swarms, dancing in the air, especially 

 towards the close of day. Professor Williston states that, over mead- 

 ows in the Rocky Mountains, he has seen them rise at nightfall in most 

 incredible numbers, producing a buzzing or humming noise like that 

 of a distant waterfall, and audible for a considerable distance. 



Most larvffi of midges are aquatic; but some live either in manure, 

 in decaying vegetable matter, under bark, or in the ground. Some of 

 the pupas are free and active, others are quiescent; some of the latter 

 remain partly enclosed in the split larval skin. The larvse and pupae 

 of the aquatic species are of much importance as fish-food. 



Many of the aquatic larvas live in tubes which they build of bits of 

 dead leaves and particles of sand fastened together with viscid 

 threads. These tubes are frequently seen upon the surface of dead 

 leaves, stones, and sticks; and they are often made in the mud of the 

 bottom of a pool, in which case they open at the surface of the mud. 

 Many of the species are blood-red in color, and hence are frequently 

 known as blood-worms . 



The aquatic larvag feed on algae, decaying vegetable matter, di- 

 atoms, and small Crustacea; the terrestrial species, on manure or de- 

 caying vegetable matter. There are a few cases reported of the larvae 

 of midges infesting living plants . 



To the genus Culicoides belong the small midges commonly known 

 as sandflies or punkies. Certain minute species are sometimes very 

 abundant, and extremely annoying on account of their bites. They 

 are exceedingly troublesome in the Adirondack Mountains, in the 

 White Mountains, and along mountain streams generally; they are 

 also abundant in some places at the seashore. 



More than 200 species of the Chironomidee have been described 

 from our fauna. The family was monographed by Professor Johannsen 

 ('05 and '08). 



