Midge

[Steve Maxson]

This Midge (Order: Diptera, Family: Chironomidae) was photographed on Tansy flowers along the shore of Lake Superior. Midges spend most of their life cycle as aquatic larvae (often called bloodworms). At the appropriate time in the summer, (each species has its own timing) they emerge synchronously as adults to live for only a few days until they are finished breeding. These emergences can consist of many millions of individuals and they are an important food source for breeding birds. Though they look superficially like mosquitoes (much to the chagrin of people not familiar with these insects!) they do not bite and are completely harmless. 40D, Canon 180mm macro,1/250, f/16, ISO 400, macro twin flash, hand held, auto focus. Comments are welcome.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice photo Steve. The midge looks very good with a nice tight focus. I really like the yellows. It looks like you have handled them very well. Interesting story to boot. Well done. Dave

[Harshad Barve]

Interesting story , nice colors and good sharpness
TFS

[Julie Kenward]

Lovely yellows in this image, Steve! Your exposure, DOF, crystal clear details all work. My one thought for possibly improving the image a bit would be to remove/clone out the small partial flower at the bottom of the frame in the way of the stem. Not sure if you could clone the stem from one of the other plants, though - it might be more trouble than its worth.

Very nice image overall...

[Connie Mier]

Interesting insect, but I sure do like those yellow plants. Very nice details and I like how you composed the shot. I might be tempted to get rid of the little web strings.

[Vida van der Walt]

Lovely image Steve. Sharp and I love the colours. Great comp and bg too. We have similar midges here and I have a shot of a male with the long feathery antennae. I was wondering if you know if there is a difference between a midge and a gnat or maybe it is the same thing?:)

[Steve Maxson]

I was wondering if you know if there is a difference between a midge and a gnat or maybe it is the same thing?:)
Hi Vida. Technically, a midge and a gnat are different things, but here we run into the issue of using common names rather than scientific names. For example, what many people over here call gnats are more appropriately called black flies or biting midges/"no-see-ums." Both of these are small biting flies and are in different Families than midges. We also have Dark-winged Fungus Gnats and Fungus Gnats in yet two other Families. It is entirely possible that many people refer to midges as gnats and the usage of these common names could be very different in your part of the world than over here. Hope this helps. :)

[Gordon Craig]

I love the composition. The insect is perfectly placed.