Midges - no really it midges

Best seen large.

So anybody who has been to Scotland will say they have seen the dreaded highland midge - but you will have never seen them in their larval form. Midges survive the winter after being laid as eggs in late summer/early autumn then hatching out into larvae. They spend the winter feeding in the insulated peat bogs on organic matter and wait for the longer and warmer days of Spring. They then emerge out and the females look for a blood meal from an animal and have a good feed. Her eggs are laid into the soil after a bit of mating and the circle starts again with more larvae hatching and 6 weeks later emerge as adult midges to bite you.

Here we have 7 larvae which are some of those I collected the other week. The six which are the same size are the dreaded Highland midge (Culicoides impunctatus) whilst the larger one on the right is another species (I need to get the midge bible out to identify). In Scotland we have 37 different species of Culicoides biting midges, but the Highland midge is the most prolific and readily bites humans. You will be glad to hear that the Highland midge is one of the smallest in its family and its relatives C. pulicaris or one of my favourites C. grisescens can be x6 bigger in size - but this explains the stories of people being attacked by huge midges - normally with fangs.

650 blips in a row!