Midge
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This a male chironomus midge (females lack antennae plumage). Chironomids do not bite; in fact, as adults they do not even feed. As a result they have a lifespan of 3-5 days once reaching adulthood. Midges are among the most populous insects to inhabit manmade and stagnant watercourses, especially sewage drainage and irrigation drainage where there is plenty of decomposing matter. In nutrient-rich water, midge populations can easily exceed 4,000 larvae per square foot in the mud bottom. Chironomid larvae are called bloodworms because they are a deep red color, caused by hemoglobin in their blood, which is very rare in insects. The iron in their blood helps retain oxygen down in the nitrogen-rich (but oxygen-poor) muck they thrive in.
Midges are a very common in neighborhoods of newly constructed housing adjacent to slow-moving or stagnant fresh water. (Like my neighborhood.) They are considered a nuisance pest by some, but I actually like them. Just remember to keep your mouth closed when they’re swarming. Of course, the reason I like them is that midges provide an excellent food source for spiders which thrive quite joyously on daily midge feasts.
This little guy is almost 12mm long (not counting antennae or legs), which is actually rather huge for a midge, and makes me think he’s probably chironomus plumosus, the only species to commonly exceed 10mm, but dicrotendipes modestus (also in family chironomidae) is more likely to inhabit the kinds of ponds and vegetation we have here. I’ll have to take my camera to the pond and hunt for larvae. If I can find them at all, they’ll be dicrotendipes modestus, because plumosus larvae prefer water several meters deep (and I’m not swimming for photos).
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
Jeremiah said,
August 9, 2007 @ 7:55 am
Did you put up the living midge to pay homage to the dead one in your first photo?
Jeremiah said,
August 9, 2007 @ 7:56 am
Sorry…in the first spider photo. That’s the first one I ever saw, and being it LOOKS like a huge spider, it sticks in my mind as the first one.
David Brady said,
August 9, 2007 @ 1:38 pm
Hee… well, I sort of treat the midges with grateful yet somewhat psychotic respect. I am grateful for them, but I have no illusions: they exist to die. They exist to die and feed the spiders and dragonflies and damselflies and mantises and wasps and birds and all of the other wildlife that thrives so abundantly here.
It’s funny; a lot of people here want to exterminate the midges. We have an abatement program here (that, of course, doesn’t work) to try and eradicate them because the constant swarming of the midges detracts from the human enjoyment of the birds, waterfowl, dragonflies and other “pretty” fauna in our neighborhood. The people who are trying to exterminate the midges seem blissfully unaware of the fact that the midges are almost singlehandedly holding up the entire arthropod food chain here.
Jeremiah said,
August 9, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
The people who are trying to exterminate the midges seem blissfully unaware of the fact that the midges are almost singlehandedly holding up the entire arthropod food chain here.
That’s because people are dumb.
Seriously though, when will people learn that actions have consequences, and when you start messing around ecologically, the consequences can be much bigger than you would have ever thought, and very unexpected?
Let’s bring in something to kill the Gypsy Moths!
Tye said,
August 10, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
You know Klamath Falls, Oregon imported midges into the local ecosystem over 10 years ago to bash the mosquito infestation, but now they are a worse blight than the mosquitos themselves. The running joke around there is “Inhaling midges above and mosquitos biting your legs below”. So now you have both annoying you.
Even while travelling down Highway 97 and going around Klamath Lake during the early fall season you’ll see swarms of midges in certain places. So much so that it looks like a green snow storm and a car wash is mandatory or your nice new white car has a faint tinge of green through it.
And a side note, whether you inhale or eat a midge they taste the same, if not worse in some cases.
David Brady said,
August 10, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
That’s so crazy. I wonder why they didn’t import damselflies or dragonflies; their larvae are carnivorous and eat mosquito larvae, and the flying versions of course take the battle to the skies.
It wouldn’t eliminate the population, of course; you’d have predator/prey population oscillations. Though if you’ve got midges now, you might try importing damselflies; you just can’t kill midges enough to affect their populations.
Thor said,
October 7, 2007 @ 1:23 am
That being said, I can totally understand why you would not want to dive into a pool chock full of writhing midge larvae for photo ops.
DeeJaye6 said,
October 8, 2007 @ 1:53 am
So, there was a mouse in the room. They brought in a cat that chased off the mouse. But the cat wouldn’t stop meowing, and scratched anyone who came close. They brought in a dog that chased off the cat. But then the dog took over the bed and growled at anyone who came close. So, they brought in a lion that chased off the dog. But the lion just took over from where the dog left off. Then they brought in an elephant which chased off the lion. But then the elephant wouldn’t move, no matter what they did. Finally, they brought in a mouse that scared the elephant away. And there was a mouse in the room.