476 OTHER BLOOD-SUCKING FLIES 



the pupa floats in a vertical position, breathing through tufts of 

 threadlike filaments which correspond to the breathing trumpets 

 of mosquitoes. In the terrestrial forms the pupa retains the 

 last larval skin hanging to its posterior end. The aquatic species 

 of the subfamily Ceratopogoninae are peculiar in that the pupse 

 must reach a dry surface before the adult will emerge. Little 

 is known about the length of time required for the development 

 from egg to adult, but it is probably comparable with that re- 

 quired by mosquitoes two weeks or less to a month or more, 

 according to temperature. 



Annoyance. The amount of annoyance which may be caused 

 by midges is sometimes very great. The writer will never for- 

 get his experiences with them in a 

 collecting and fishing trip in the 

 Cascade Mountains of Oregon. 

 The midge which proved itself 

 troublesome, a species of Culicoides 

 (Fig. 218), was very local in dis- 

 tribution, and always standing 

 pools of shallow water were found 

 in the near vicinity. The prox- 

 imity of such pools was invariably 

 FIG. 218. A "punky" or "no- proclaimed, towards evening, by 



see-um," Culicoides, which is a th col l ection o f great numbers of 

 scourge of fishermen and campers in 



the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, these insects on all exposed parts 



of the body, each one so minute as 



to be hardly visible, but in the aggregate sometimes giving the 

 arm or shirt sleeve a dark gray color. Each one is presently 

 the cause of an intensely itching spot. That the insects are 

 attracted by animal smells is evident from the following experi- 

 ence. The writer had shot a rabbit and was skinning it. Al- 

 most immediately after the animal was cut open and the smell 

 of the warm bowels exposed to the air the writer found himself 

 attacked by myriads of these insects, and was bitten to such 

 an extent as to be driven almost to a complete frenzy, until he 

 discovered that only a few yards from the opened animal he was 

 not attacked at all. The skinning of the rabbit was completed 

 in the welcome protection of a dense smoke. 



Midges as Disease Carriers. Only in one instance have 

 midges been accused of carrying disease. Two species of land- 



