CHIRONOMIM. 
561 
inoffensive creatures. They are readily distinguished from the Culicidce 
by their short proboscis and the absence of scales. In the Mosquitos 
the hind edge of the wing is fringed with little scales and bordered by the 
costal vein, while in the Midges there are no scales (though the wing 
may be hairy), and the costa stops short at the tip. In the Chironomids 
the veins in the front part of the wing are often much more strongly 
marked than those behind, just as in the Simuliids, Bibionids, Stratio- 
myids, Hippoboscids, and Phorids. In their resting attitude they often 
raise the fore-legs and hold them up in front of the head, while in Mos¬ 
quitos it is the hind legs which ate raised from the ground. They are 
very frequently observed dancing in small swarms in the still evening 
air. 
A species of 4 4 Ceratopogon ’ ’ has been observed at Pusa to settle in 
a thick swarm of several hundred individuals on the underside of four 
or five leaves of a Pipal tree, remaining there for four days in spite of a 
heavy shower of rain. Some of them which were caught and kept soon 
began pairing, and it is not improbable that all such curious assemblies, 
as well as aerial dances, have some connection with the sexual relations 
of the insects which take part in them. 
The sexes can, as a rule, be at once distinguished by the antennae, 
which are thickly plumose and feathery in the males but not in the 
females. The male genital claspers can also be easily seen in most 
cases. 
With the exception of the Ceratopogonince, some of which are blood¬ 
suckers, the Chironomidce are of little practical importance. To the 
biologist, however, they afford very suitable objects for study, and a 
good deal of work has been done on their anatomy and development. 
They are nearly all aquatic. All stages of Chironomus and allied genera 
may be found in tanks and pools of stagnant water. Their eggs are in 
many cases laid in beautiful little spiral strings, enclosed in a long 
cylinder of clear antiseptic jelly which is anchored to weeds or stones. 
The eggs may be very numerous, one of thest; cylinders sometimes con¬ 
taining nearly 1000. I have observed a small Chironomus make the 
curious mistake of laying its eggs on a pane of glass instead of in water. 
The jelly cylinder when extruded formed only a quite thin covering to 
the string of eggs, but when the string was removed from the glass and 
placed in water, the jelly rapidly expanded to form the usual thick 
HL 36 
