NOTES ON LAKE MICHIGAN SWARMS OF CHIRO- 
NOMIDS; QUANTITATIVE NOTES ON 
SPRING INSECTS 1 
By Alfred C. Burrill 
Ever since Frederick Knab’s paper on the “ Swarming of Culex 
pipiens” in Psyche , October, 1906, the writer has wished to see 
such swarms. Field trips seem to have lacked opportunity for 
such interesting observations until, in 1910, the summer was spent 
at a bungalow on the Lake Michigan bluff at Whitefish Bay, 
near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at an altitude of 150 feet above the 
beach. An ample porch screened in on three sides of the house 
furnished an excellent collecting ground for all small flies which 
sought to rest over night and had not discovered or else did not 
prefer to seek the maple trees back (west) of the house. The 
flies were blown in from the lake (east of house) and the porch 
screen was generally the first alighting place above the bluff bank. 
Observations morning and evening during the spring and early 
summer showed this location to be very favorable for observing 
the habits of several species of small midges. Collections were 
made almost daily and deposited with the Milwaukee Public 
Museum where most of the 2300 specimens await identification. 
MIDGE WEATHER 
My first record was on May 19 when a mangled mass of dozens 
of black Chironomids was found washed down by the rains from 
an orb spider web. These midges were still alive 24 hours after 
the rain, and probably 48 hours from the time they had become 
entangled. Of the many spider webs about the eaves and the 
porch screens, all were filled with Chironomids or were replenished 
nightly during the two previous weeks of dry weather. It is a 
1 Digest of the object, location, and methods of collection was reported at the April 4, 1912 
meeting of the Wis. Acad, of Sci. Arts and Letters, but the paper was unfinished at the time 
their annual volume went to press. 
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