246 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



difficult, however, to give definite popular names for the 

 other species. The word " midge " is perhaps most com- 

 monly used as a general term for them, though it is also 

 employed for insects of similar structure, but of less annoy- 

 ing habits. To the genera Simulium and Geratopogon 

 belong some of the most annoying of these persecuting 

 midges ; and some of the former become occasionally 

 almost as bad a plague as the mosquitoes proper. 



The Simulia are also known as "sand-flies," and in 

 America, where they have occasioned great annoyance 

 and trouble amongst the cattle, they are called " Turkey 

 Gnats" and "Buffalo Gnats." They are small, dark- 

 coloured insects, of a less fragile nature than the Cidices, 

 but still " thread-horned," and not, therefore, to be con- 

 founded with any of the " short-horns," such as the 

 great, stout-bodied "breeze-flies," which are also terribly 

 bad stingers. The flies have the peculiar habit of emerg 

 ing from the chrysalis beneath the surface of the water. 



The Ceratopogon which is sometimes troublesome in 

 this country is a minute, greyish-brown insect. It is 

 sometimes abundant in marshes and fens, where the 

 females are very annoying. 



But besides these, many other insects are called midges, 

 though they are not troublesome. There are, for example, 

 first, the Chironomi or Plumed Gnats, the larvae of one 

 species of which are the grotesquely wriggling, red worm- 

 like creatures, found in ponds and water-butts, and called 

 "blood- worms." These are more uniformly cylindrical 

 than the larvae of the Culices, and, besides wriggling 

 about in the water, they construct amongst the mud at 

 the bottom, tubes composed of particles of decayed leaves, 

 fastened together with silken threads. The pupa, which 

 is similar in shape to that of the Culices, and has an 

 enormous fore-part, may be distinguished by the pair of 



