66 Bulletin Wisconsin Natural History Society [Vol. 11, Nos. 1-2 
Vom Rath, O. 1896 Zur Kenntnis der Hautsinnesorgane und des sensi- 
iblen Nervensystems der Arthropoden. Zeits. wiss. Zool., bd. 
61, pp. 499-539, taf. 23, 24. 
Shipley and Wilson. 1902 Stridulatory Organs of Anopheles , p. 367, in 
Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. 
ENEMIES OF ADULTS 
On the 27th, I noted that a midge had a mite of a bright red 
color attached to the ventral prothorax. In addition to this para- 
site we should reckon the spider tribe as their arch enemies, from 
the thousands of midges entangled in spider webs. Conversely, 
are the midges not also a nuisance to the spiders, since the webs 
become overloaded, dangling in long streamers with the midges 
still squirming along the strands, or whole portions of such ropy 
web actually falling as a blackened mass to the door steps, even 
from webs measuring nearly a square foot in area? While the 
spiders were not seen to suck these flies, they probably did so. 
In any case, on two occasions, different spiders attempted to cut 
loose a damaged portion composing such a living rope, and other 
spiders were frequently seen at dusk trying to respin the snare. 
Besides the spiders, the English sparrow commonly feeds on them 
(Burrill, 1913, February, What is the Present Verdict about the 
English Sparrow; Stray Notes Original and Otherwise; By the 
Wayside, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 44) and some of the warblers passing 
northward during the last of May (Burrill, 1912, March, The 
Palm Warbler ( D . palmarum), By the Wayside, vol. 13, no. 7, 
pp. 50-1). The black ant (. Formica fusca subsp. subsericea) is 
occasionally seen taking a dead midge nestwards. 
Especially noteworthy were these ants during the cold weather 
spell of May 29-June 5. Then these black ants seemed to depend 
on the midges as their chief food supply above ground, although 
they frequently forage for dandelion nectar. Many black ants 
were seen to be carrying dead or dying midges to the nest. Put- 
ting spider-web ropes of midges on Formica mounds soon proved 
to the ants that spider web ropes are unbreakable. They at- 
tempted to drag the whole rope of midges through the city gates, 
enlarged for the purpose. On this morning June 7, two black 
ants were catching live midges on the front gate posts, temporary 
affairs made out of square tile pipes. The black ants were rather 
