Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Midge

Description:

Can't tell if this is of a midge or mosquito? I got as close of a picture as I could. Looks like the insect has an orange head and a slender black body.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

5 Comments

I agree the one on Bug-guide looks close. You could wait for some of our experts to come on or you could post to Bug-guide and ask for their help also.
By the way, getting close is not always good as it reduces the depth of field, unless you have a very expensive macro set-up. I often use the same set-up that I use for birds, a 600mm (35mm equiv) or 12X zoom from 6 feet away - less chance of disturbing the subject and slightly better depth of field. I find using a smaller camera close-up the quality ls lower. I also save in RAW mode. The quality of yours is good but the depth of field is quite small, hence some parts are out of focus. A higher F# is also helpful. For most of my moths I use a 280mm (35mm equiv) at F22 with flash open and take several shots as there are always a few failures, and between them all parts will hopefully be in focus in some of the pictures.

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 9 years ago

I'm certainly no expert on these but take a look at this image, especially the thorax. http://bugguide.net/node/view/523041

AprilPerry
AprilPerry 9 years ago

Thank you Scott. Any idea on what kind of midge it may be?

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 9 years ago

Looks like a midge...there doesn't seem to be a proboscis sticking out from the head.

Definitely not a mosquito. The difference is the Mosquitoes wings and hind legs are longer than the body, those of the Midge are shorter than the body, as this one. That does not mean it is a midge though as there are many other insect types that it might be.

AprilPerry
Spotted by
AprilPerry

Bellmore, New York, USA

Spotted on May 24, 2014
Submitted on May 24, 2014

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Chironomid Midges Midge (female) Non biting Midge Midge

Nearby Spottings

Spotting Spotting Water strider Spotting
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team