In this essay, I’m going to explain everything you need to know about Culicoides Imicola. The fly I will talk about is called the Culicoides Imicola, but more commonly known as a biting midge, it is also known as a no-see-um. The first thing you might notice about biting midges is that they have wings. Biting midges can be found in aquatic or semi aquatic habitats.  They are a very interesting type of fly.

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Biting midges are generally really small animals. They are usually 1 to 3 millimeters. They are also normally a brownish color. Some identifying characteristics of them are that males usually emerge and are ready to mate when the female is just emerging from the pupal stage. Both males and females are holometabolous, which means they go from egg, to larva, to pupa, to the adult stage.

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No-see-ums have a pretty stable population. They live in Florida, tropics, sub-tropics, and the Caribbean. There are over 4,000 species worldwide, 600 in North America, and 47 in Florida alone. Like I said before, they have pretty stable population so I don’t think it’s going to change drastically anytime soon.

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The male biting midges always feed on nectar. While the females bite and suck blood because they need it to reproduce.  Something I found really interesting is that, when they bite you, because they are so small, you probably won’t even realize it until it actually starts to feed. Some of its predators when they are larvae are parasitic nematodes. But when they are adults some predators can be empid flies, dragonflies, fish, amphibians and bats. But there is little study on their predators so this isn’t for sure.

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Knowledge about biting midges is very important because they can bite so you need to know how to stay safe. But they are mostly found near water so if you aren’t anywhere near water you’re probably.

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Author: Jordyn H.
published: 2/2013

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Sources:
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/aquatic/biting_midges.htm,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae,
http://pelotes.jea.com/AnimalFact/Arthropod/NOSEEUM.htm,
http://books.google.com/books?id=_V6N4l_AkkUC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=niche+of+biting+midges&source=bl&ots=oFBNCzdEKc&sig
=NiBWddu_-P-pvtSpFYwdsWyY2SA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qcE9T8mhKpPYiQLyk-nRAQ&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=niche%20of%20biting%
20midges&f=false,http://australianmuseum.net.au/Biting-midges,
http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/advisorynotes/29/29.htm