1913] 
Burrill , The Giant Midge, Chironomus plimiosus. 
147 
the opposite side of the utricle.” P. 387, “But the Chironomus larva 
not only swims and wriggles (into such positions as does the mos¬ 
quito larva), but it uses its brush-like feet, and crawls along the 
leaves and stems of the plants, and often feeds on the hairs or 
bristles about the entrance of the utricle which I find in all of the 
species except in Utricularia purpurea ” In turn Chironomids 
are thought to be parasites or inquilines of the water snail (Limnea 
peregra) at least for one species C. niveipennis (Barnard, 1911, 
76-8). 
Fungus Diseases. —For about a week from August 11, 1912, 
during a prolonged wet spell, a fungus disease broke; out on all 
species of midges, and moored them to the tree trunks and other 
outdoor resting places. On August 18th, I repeated this observa¬ 
tion at South Oshkosh where a considerable swarm of C. plumosus 
was fast perishing from this fungus disease, considered by Dr. E. 
W. Olive (letter, August 20, 1912) as Empusa culicis, which was 
common in 1905-6 about Madison. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 
Nuisance to Summer Resorts. —In a discussion of these obser¬ 
vations before the Wisconsin Natural History Society, June 8th, 
1911, the following points were brought out: Mr. E. E. Teller 
stated that a friend was forced to give up a cottage at Oshkosh 
Beach due to these flies in 1909, being so thick that year that they 
were brushed up by the shovelful indoors. It was well-nigh im¬ 
possible to exclude them with screening as they swarmed in with 
every person using the doorways. Miss F. Elmer related similai 
conditions in the same region in 1908, when the lake algae again 
made the lake green for many square miles, as seen from the 
deck of a steamer. 
Nuisance about Lights. —The trouble from midges putting out 
wharf lights and so interfering with evening trips on the lake 
by summer resorters should be referred to. As to data of this 
sort, I assume that evidence based on qualitative and quantitative 
determinations of the insects would show from midges quite as 
much mischief to beacon lights such as lighthouses, as from may¬ 
flies, mosquitoes or moths along water fronts. The keeper of the 
second-class light at Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wis., complained to 
