CHAPTER VII. 
THE CHIRONOMID. 
‘THE Chironomide, or, as they are popularly called, “the Midges,” are 
a family extremely rich in species but poor in genera. In all 
probability we know but a very small proportion of the species 
indigenous to England, although Verrall enumerates as many as 
268, besides a large number of reputed ones. There seems, however, 
to be some doubt as to the authenticity of many of the records. 
Walker describes as many as 224 species of Chironomus, 82 of 
Ceratopogon, and 20 of other genera, 326 in all. This number has 
already been reduced to 268, and many of these we are not at all 
certain as to their true identification. The small size of many of 
these “ midges,” the difficulty of preservation and identification has 
hindered their study, little or nothing having been done in this 
country, until recently, when Mr. Verrall has worked through them. 
The family Chironomidz originally contained the old genera 
Chironomus, Tanypus, and Ceratopogon of Meigen, to which were 
afterwards added Diamesa, Mg., Corynoneura, Wtz., and Clunio, 
Hal., and more recently Van der Wulp has separated off the new 
yenera Cricotopus, Orthocladius, Camptocladius, Tanytarsus, 
Lurycnemus, and Metriocnemus, all represented in England. The 
genus Hydrobenus of Fries may also possibly be represented by a 
single species; the same may be said of Schiner’s Zha/assomyia. 
Not only is this family extremely rich in species, but in numbers 
also, many of the commoner forms appearing in immense swarms, 
the accounts of them that come from the tropics are marvellous. 
By far the larger number appear just before sunset and shortly 
after, they all, and especially the more delicate coloured ones, prefer 
the latter part of the day for their revels in the air. 
Chironomide may be taken anywhere, but by far the most 
successful hunting grounds are around pieces of water, many of the 
larvee being aquatic in their habits. The development of one, C. 
plumosus, has been fully dealt with by various embryologists and 
