"Mosquito larvae have a very distinct movement in the water," Wade said. "They're sometimes called 'wrigglers,' because they do wriggle around in the water body.

“When they begin life as larvae, the midges feed on organic matter up the bottom of the lake or the river, and by doing that, they are cleaning up the sediment,” she says. “Fish feed on them. Frogs ...

The name midge refers to a large group of small flying insects. They are divided into two main groups: biting midges and nonbiting midges. Biting midges feed on the blood or bodily fluids of other ...

The larvae are a valuable food source for fish and other aquatic organisms in the water. And once above water, the adult midge flies can be food for birds, bats and other vertebrate.

Dr Blackwell said they are an important part of the natural ecosystem. "The larvae, the juvenile stages are probably most important because they're like mini earthworms," she said.

Soils need to be warm (>13C) and moist for larvae to pupate and emerge and still nights favour flight, he says. “If soil isn’t moist, larvae can return to the cocoon stage.” ...

The study, titled ‘Single-use takeaway cups of paper are as toxic to aquatic midge larvae as plastic cups’, was published in the esteemed journal Environmental Pollution, shedding light on the ...

Antarctica’s only native insect could provide inspiration for how humans could travel into deep space. The tiny midge called Belgica antarctica manages to live in the freezing continent by ...

Invading insect could transform Antarctic soils Date: May 10, 2023 Source: University of Birmingham Summary: A tiny flightless midge which has colonized Antarctica's Signy Island is driving ...