Circle of Life
Location: Contra Costa County, CA
October 13, 2011 9:17 pm
Saw this guy flipping around on a leaf while hiking along the edge of a marsh. Didn’t even see the ant until I looked at the picture on my camera. I wasn’t able to stick around to see who won, but I know those ants aggressively defend their eucalyptus.
Signature: Fel
MIdge and Ant relationship
Dear Fel,
We cannot imagine what the Ant is doing to the Midge. You actually witnessed it, so you think it looked like a battle. We sense that this is some symbiotic relationship or possibly a one sided relationship. Perhaps this became Phoresy after the camera stopped running.
The midge was flipping around like he was trying to get away but the ant had a good grip on him. Those eucalyptus have some sort of psyllid insect, tortoise beetles (fast little buggers), and those ants. If you touch the leaves, the ants come running so I assumed the ant was defending his territory.
¶ Posted 14 October 2011 § Ants ‡ ° Ghost Midge?
Location: Granite Lake, Trinity Alps Wilderness, CA
August 2, 2011 12:32 pm
At Granite Lake in the Trinity Alps Wilderness we heard a scary sound of millions of bugs… worried it was mosquitoes but it was these little guys. (There were also lots of mosquitoes.) Some kind of midge I’m sure, but what kind?
Signature: -Ben
Male Midge
Hi Ben,
We agree that this is a Midge, and we will also say with confidence that it is a male Midge based on the antennae, but we have to stop short of trying to take the identification any further. We do not have the necessary skills or resources to distinguish between species of Midges.
¶ Posted 03 August 2011 § ‡ ° Moth at Waldo Lake, Oregon
Location: Waldo Lake, Central Cascades, Oregon
August 1, 2011 10:38 pm
It looked more like a fly or mosquito but up close I’d say it’s a moth. Any idea what kind of moth?
Signature: Richard
Unknown Male Midge
Hi Richard,
Your initial instinct was correct. This is not a moth, despite its feathery antennae. It is a Midge, a group of Flies closely classified with Mosquitoes. There are Biting Midges and those that do not bite, but alas, we have had no luck identifying the species you submitted. We can tell you that it is a male based on the feathery antennae. You can try searching through the insects posted to BugGuide under the infraorder Culicomorpha and you might have better luck than we have had.
¶ Posted 02 August 2011 § ‡ ° Male Midge – Chironomidae
Location: Utah, 6,000 feet
March 5, 2011 11:29 am
I see several insects in the winter, as the weather begins to warm up. On this walk I took, I found several of these little black, fuzzy antenna insects. I perused your site, as well as another site that talks about insects, and think I’ve identified it as a Male non-biting Midge.
This was taken in Utah, at about 6,000 ft. on March 4.
Signature: Wendy
Snow Midge
Hi Wendy,
Your identification is correct. We are pleased to hear that you are using internet resources to research your identification requests and that our site was a component of your research. Though we have photos of Midges on our website, your photo is the first Snow Midge we have received. BugGuide has an excellent image of a male Snow Midge that matches your image. We also found a very nice Nature Post on Snow Midges on the Abundant Nature website.
¶ Posted 06 March 2011 § ‡ ° Flying Insect
Taylor, MI (southeast MI)
August 31, 2010 10:40 pm
This is probably a pretty boring insect, but what in the world is this. They were hanging out by the hundreds on a window of a friend of mine?
cgp
Midges
Hi cgp,
We are not going to try to pretend we know more than what our limited understanding includes when it comes to insect identification. These are members of the order Diptera which includes flies and mosquitoes. They are some small gnats or midges, but we have no idea what family much less genus or species. That would take a true expert in the area, known as a dipterist. We can tell you that this is a pair, and the individual with the arrow pointing at him is the male. Many male flies have highly developed antennae which are sensory organs, presumably to help them locate females. Hopefully one of our readers will be able to provide a more specific identification. We just noticed your email contained a second contact with additional information.
Apparently this is a chiromid midge.
– cgp
Dear cgp,
Thanks for providing us with a followup that supports our original vague identification. We are linking to the BugGuide information page on the Chironomid Midges in the family Chironomidae.
¶ Posted 01 September 2010 § ‡ ° Is this a skeeter or what??
Location unknown
July 19, 2010
In the grocery store recently, I found a little flying critter sitting on, yes, a bottle of mosquito repellent. It was too funny and I had to take a pic! But I went online later to look at mosquito pictures, and none of them look like this fella. Can you tell me what it actually is?
Amused but confused
Thanks,
Alice
Is that a Mosquito on the Mosquito Repellent???
Hi Alice,
Sadly, we do not have a conclusive answer for you, but we are also terribly amused by the possibility that this might be a Mosquito on the bottle of repellent. Judging by the antennae, it might be a male, and male Mosquitoes do not bite. It might also be a Midge. At any rate, we are cropping out the product name in your photo in an effort to not compromise product sales.
2
ID please
June 17, 2010
Took pics of this bug last week. Lake Tinaroo up on the Atherton Tablelands above Cairns, Far North Queensland. I seems to have moth like antennae but a mosquito like body.
Thanks
Andy MacDougall
atherton highlands, tropical north queensland
Midge
Hi Andy,
This is a Midge in the family Chironomidae, and it is a male judging by his feathery antennae. We do not have the necessary skills to further classify this Midge to the genus or species level, but we have linked to a similar image on BugGuide for reference.
ID request
April 23, 2010
This pic was taken in a wetlands area in Odenton, MD on 4/222/10 around 7:30pm. If you can identify it, please let me know what it is. Thanks!
Wondering999
Odenton MD
Male Non-Biting Midge
Dear Wondering999,
We believe this is a Mosquito, but we are uncertain of the species. The feathery antennae indicate that it is a male, and only female Mosquitoes bite and suck blood. Male Mosquitoes feed on nectar. Perhaps one of our readers will know the species and write in with further information.
Correction thanks to Karl
April 27, 2010
Hi Daniel and Wondering999:
It’s definitely a male, but it looks like a Non-Biting Midge (Chironomidae). They are closely related but adult non-biting midges are distinguished from mosquitoes (Culicidae) by the way the head is tucked under, the lack of scales on the wings, and the lack of elongated mouthparts (compare a male non-bighting midge to a male mosquito). Your question is “but what species???”. Although I am not prepared to go that far out on a limb, I believe it belongs to the subfamily Chironominae and tribe Chironomini, perhaps genus Chironomus. However, the Chironomids are a very difficult group and identifications really require some serious expertise. Non-biting midges are often mistaken for mosquitoes, which can sometimes be alarming because they tend to congregate in dense cloud-like mating swarms that can generate an impressive buzz. The swarms are often focused around the tops of trees or other prominent features on warm spring and summer evenings. They occur in vast numbers in most non-arid environments, in the water as larvae and in the air as adults, and they are a critical component of aquatic and terrestrial food webs. As the name suggests, they do not bite. Regards.
Karl
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