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Bulletin Wisconsin Natural History Society. [Vol. 10, Nos. 3-4. 
from the grass. When we pitched camp in the short grass of a 
treeless pasture, we found the midges there still avoided grass 
but sought whatever vegetation was slightly taller, all weeds one 
and a half decimeters to a meter in height, such as mullein, golden- 
rod, and small bushes or stool shoots of old stumps. The under 
sides of the mullein leaves, etc., and even the upright stems were 
actually dark with these numberless midges. When some of the 
troopers started through a knee-high sedge marsh back of camp 
to go bathing in Lake Winnebago, a quarter mile to the rear, we 
were so beset by swarms of thouusands that we began to run invol¬ 
untarily; so sudden was their onslaught that we had no time to 
reflect if these were new swarms of real mosquitoes in the wet 
lands or of the same midge as had previously come from the trees. 
As the men ran over the rough land, they became out of breath, 
and, when opening their mouths to gasp breath, were sure to choke 
with the annoying little flies. Then they realized the folly of 
their actions, and finding only midges and no bites, came to a 
walk and swinging of hats with better results. 
Suggestive of this account is the story of Dr. Asa Fitch (1874, 
May, 282 ; quoted by Lintner, 1882, Jan. 12, 13, and reproduced 
by Lintner, 1885, 243), probably an experience of his own on 
April 27, 1846, with a little midge C. nivoriundus. “On one occa¬ 
sion, in traversing a forest, it was observed in such countless 
myriads as to prove of the greatest annoyance to the tourist, get¬ 
ting into his mouth, nostrils, and ears at every step, and literally 
covering his clothing” (probably dark clothes?) and so continu¬ 
ing for above a quarter of a mile near an adjacent swamp, whence, 
he thinks, they may have come. Kirby and Spence (1858, 60-1) 
quote authors on similar plagues of Tipulariw (of Latreille, the 
former systematic position of the Chironomidw ). “In Lapland 
their numbers are so prodigious as to be compared to a flight of 
snow, when the flakes fall thickest, or to the dust of the earth. 
The natives can not take a mouthful of food or lie down to sleep 
in their cabins, unless they be fumigated almost to suffocation. In 
the air you can not draw breath without having your mouth and 
nostrils filled with them.” 8 
8) His footnote cites “Acerbi’s ‘Travels,’ v. 2, 5, 34, 35, 51. 
Linn. ‘Flor. Lapp.’ 380, 381. 
Larch. Lapp. v. 2. 108. 
De Geer, v. 6. 303, 304.” 
