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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Midges, Non-biting Midges, Blood-worms.
Adult insects. Very small to medium-sized; slender-bodied; stilt-legged (notably the fore-legs). Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’ (hairy, and usually plumose in males); not aristate. Ocelli absent. Eyes rounded, well separated. Mouthparts functional (poorly developed), or non-functional; when operational, non-piercing. Mandibles absent. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture (without the V-shaped suture Tipulidae). Wing veins reaching the margin 6–8 (with vein 2 faint or vestigial, and never with a forked vein 4). Wings mostly without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa not extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind (but long). The leading edge veins markedly stronger than the rest to not noticeably stronger than the rest. Wing vein 4 not forked. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae aquatic; phytophagous, or saprophagous; eucephalic. The pupae without a puparium (the last larval skin remaining attached to the posterior segments).
Comments. Delicate, gnat-like flies, often with the head overhung by the humped thorax; wings narrow, usually held apart at rest. The males frequently dancing in swarms, especially near water.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Culicomorpha; Superfamily Chironomoidea.
British representation. 588 species in Britain. Genera about 140; with a few genera - Chironomus, Cricotopus, Limnophyes, Metriocnemus, Paratanytarsus, Tanytarsus, etc. - represented by many species, but most by few.
Illustrations. • Ablabesmyia, Chironomus, Clunio, Diamesa, Harnischia, Potthastia (from Walker). 1, Potthastia gaedii. 1a and 1c, details of wing and female antenna, respectively, of Chironomus plumosus. 1b, antenna of male Harnischia curtilamellata. 1c, antenna of male Diamesa tonsa. 2a and 2b, wing and female antenna of Ablabesmyia monilis. 4, Chironomus plumosus, male. 5, Clunio marinus, male, with side view (5a), details of an antenna (5b), and a hind tarsus (5c). From Walker (1856, Plates XXV and XXX), with approximate lengths of the insects added. • Macropelopia nebulosa (Clouded-winged Midge: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (detail: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (dissections: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (B. Ent. 501, legend+text). • Macropelopia nebulosa: B. Ent. 501, text cont.. • Eurycnemus crassipes (Bentleyan Midge: B. Ent. 090). • Eurycnemus crassipes: B. Ent. 090, legend+text. • Eurycnemus crassipes: B. Ent. 090, text cont.. • cf. Cladopelma viridulum, male: as Chironomus viridulus, Stephens 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
