1913] 
Burrill, The Giant Midge, Chironomus plumosus. 
129 
Beyond this first clump of road-side trees, every succeeding 
clump of bushy vegetation along the country road added its quota 
of hundreds of midges which would buzz noisily out at us like the 
singing of telephone wires but much louder, and would tend to 
follow us, some alighting on the horses, on their dark manes, 
flanks, and tail, but failing to light to any numerous extent on the 
light khaki of the troopers, a response to color like the tsetse fly 
of Africa, which prefers dark clothes and dark skins to light 
clothes and white man’s skin. Our horses were mostly a dark 
roan color, and on them these midges would rest for several min¬ 
utes. When alighting on the men, they took to their wings im¬ 
mediately in most cases. Where there was a considerable hedge¬ 
row of tall weeds, small trees and bushes, the whole troop would 
be enveloped in buzzing, flying swarms, which beat into the men’s 
faces, getting into their eyes, ears, and noses, but especially 
mouths, in a most disconcertingly familiar way. In fact, the larger 
nostrils of the heavily breathing horses were regular flues up 
which these midges were sucked, until the whole line of horses 
would frequently be sneezing and coughing at once. Meantime, 
troopers were ducking to cover their faces or swishing the midges 
away with their hats. It was then noted that the swarms did not 
really follows us, that most individuals did not fly very far from 
where they had been disturbed, unless they were carried along 
while resting on the horses, but seemed to return towards their 
former roosts. 
Further along we could see ahead of the column (my position 
that day was in the twelfth pair, “By two’s!”, from the head of the 
troop, about forty-five meters) scant irregular swarms made up 
of a few individuals flying lazily in front of a clump of road-side 
trees and usually on the shady side of the clump. As soon as the 
first pairs of horses passed such a scant swarm, the midge myriads 
would suddenly swarm out around us, greatly increasing this lazy 
flight to a remarkable darting speed. This sudden flight sug¬ 
gested that the vibration of their wings may not have increased 
as much in number perhaps, as the strength of wing beat had 
been increased to carry them further during their evident agi¬ 
tation. 
These midges were noticed for much more than a mile of 
roadway, swarming from the taller vegetation only, none flying 
