Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 35 



ORDER DIPTERA 



THE FLIES 



The genera of dipterous insects found about the lake that pos- 

 sess most interest to us are Chironomus, Culex, and Anopheles. 

 Of these the genus Chironomus is economically the most import- 

 ant. One species occurs at the lake in untold billions. Late in 

 September and early in October, 1913, one large yellowish, mos- 

 quito-like species of Chironomus appeared in immense numbers. 

 They were noted every evening at least from September 21 to 

 October 5, filling the air at Long Point from near the surface to a 

 height of 20 or 30 feet, and making it musical with their incessant 

 humming. They were particularly abundant on the evening of 

 October 5. They appeared in enormous numbers sometime before 

 dark and continued late in the night. They literally filled the air; 

 a person could not walk about without being annoyed by their 

 striking him in the face. It was evidently their nuptial flight, and 

 was kept up for about two weeks during warm quiet evenings. 

 The flight would usually begin an hour or so before dusk and con- 

 tinue well into the night. They were in evidence in some numbers 

 throughout the day, but the great flights always occurred late in 

 the evening. Various species of birds were observed feeding upon 

 these insects, among them nighthawks, yellow-billed cuckoos, red- 

 headed woodpeckers, yellow-rumped warblers, and song sparrows. 

 The cuckoos, warblers, swallows and sparrows would pick them 

 from the limbs of trees, while the others took them on the wing. 



At the same time, vast quantities of the cast-off skins of the 

 larvae of these insects were washed up on shore where they could 

 be seen in great masses along the edge of the water. There they 

 were fed upon by Wilson's snipes, sandpipers, rusty blackbirds and 

 even red-winged blackbirds. They were also fed upon by various 

 fishes such as straw-colored minnows, grayback, top-minnows and 

 the like. The larvae, known as red worms, are very abundant in 

 all parts of the lake; they have been dredged up from even the 

 deepest parts. They are choice food for the fishes and no doubt 

 constitute an important part of the daily menu of the suckers, min- 

 nows, darters, sunfishes and the young of the basses and other 

 spiny-rayed fishes. A 75-pound buffalo-fish contained almost a 

 bucketful of Chironomus larvae. 



About the middle of August, 1906, a mass of eggs of a smaller 

 species of Chironomus was found and placed in a saucer. The 

 eggs hatched in a few days into little wrigglers which soon became 

 worm-like and built for themselves little tubes in which they 



