Welcome!

This is your place for finding researchers, news, and other resources regarding Chironomidae, or non-biting midges. This site continues to undergo changes in organization in order to make this site more useful and accessible. The webmaster would appreciate receiving any suggestions for further improving this site. Your participation is crucial - this is your community, and your resource.

With this in mind, several requests. Please let the webmaster know of anyone who should be removed from the worker directory, or have had their directory information (e.g., addresses, contact information, interests) changed. Second, please provide information regarding meetings, conferences, and research projects involving Chironomidae. Finally, to enhance the visual appeal and communicate to others what we do, it would be greatly appreciated if you can submit photographs of midges of all life stages for inclusion in the Home Page. Proper credit, citation and copyright protection will, of course, be given. (Image upper right of a male Tanytarsus gracilentus (Holmgren, 1883) - © 2004, Torbjørn Ekrem, used with permission; image to the left is Chironomus anthracinus Zetterstedt, 1860, from Lake Esrum, Denmark, in late April - © 2004, Klaus Brodersen, used with permission).

What's new?

Below are links of events and meetings, newsletters, important publications, research web sites and other recent items of interest to the Chironomid community. If you know of something that would interest the chironomid researcher, please let the webmaster know about it so that it can be included. [Image right is a male of Gymnometriocnemus brumalis taken on 20 January 2004 in East Sussex, UK (© 2004, Patrick Roper, used with permission). "We were felling some trees on a fairly cold winter's day and many of these insects (which are common here in the colder months) landed on the cut stumps as soon as the trees were down."]

• Martin Spies announces the passing of Ernst Fittkau: "With deepest sadness I have to inform you that Prof. Ernst Josef Fittkau has passed away, just a couple of months shy of his 85th birthday...Sepp has made himself immortal not only through lasting scientific contributions, but also with the unassuming, warm-hearted and optimistic manner in which he brought people together to share and develop enthusiasm for systematics, the ecology and protection of diverse biota, and more ..."
• Ethan Bright and Martin Spies announce the Chironomidae Exchange Forum, a new way to produce supplementary information, and facilitate rapid updating thereof, on widely used standard references on the Chironomidae (added January 2012).
• Pat Hudson shares some history, a field trip photo he took of Lars Brundin and Ole Saether at the Bergen symposium in 1985. If you have any photographs you wish to share, please send them to webmaster for inclusion to this site (added December 2011).
• A new key for determining chironomid larvae of the Andes of Ecuador and Peru (from Narcís Prat and Maria Rieradevall, PDF, in Spanish) (added December 2011).
• Chironomus Newsletter 24 has been published, and is available for free download. Thanks Torbjørn and Peter! In the issue is also information on the recent 18th Chironomid Symposium held in Trondheim, Norway. (added November 2011)
• Eugenyi Markarchenko has provided an updated species list to the Chironomids of Far Eastern Russia (added November 2011)
• Midges are now on facebook, undoubtedly because they have so many friends. Len Ferrington's Chironomid Research Group now has videos related to winter midges and their importance to trout. (added April 2011)
• Hurray! The Proceedings of the XV International Symposium on Chironomidae (ISBN # 978-0-615-41254-2) is now published and available for purchase through the University of Minnesota Extension Store. Thanks to Len for seeing this through! (added January 2011)
• Henk Vallenduuk has kindly permitted linking a number of articles free to download as PDFs: Chironomus uliginosus and a key to the luridus group; Neglected and new characters of identifying Tanpodinae larvae; and a key to the larvae and pupae of European Cryptochironomus (added December 2010)
• Jon Gelhaus indicates many of Roback's publications are available as reprints. Go to the "requests for help page" for more information. (added October 2010)
• Chris Madden has published through the Museum of Victoria a key for Australian genera of larval Chironomidae. (added September 2010)
• The 18th International Symposium on Chironomidae took place between July 4-6 in 2011, in the beautiful town of Trondheim, Norway: http://www.ntnu.no/vitenskapsmuseet/chironomidae-symposium. The page will be regularly updated, so please return for news and more information later. Thank you Elisabeth, Torbjørn and Kaare for organizing this! (added July 2010)
• The Entomological Society of Canada has obtained copyright permission from the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), to publish on the ESC website the following Entomological Monographs. You can download free-of-charge some absolute classics, including the 3-Volume Manual of the Nearctic Diptera as well as Oliver and Roussel's 1983 "The genera of larval midges of Canada." Don't miss this wonderful opportunity! (added May 2010)
• Patrick Ashe and James O’Connor have now published the first of the four-volume "A world catalogue of Chironomidae (Diptera)." Part one covers the Buchonomyiinae, Chilenomyiinae, Podonominae, Aphroteniinae, Tanypodinae, Usambaromyiinae, Diamesinae, Prodiamesinae and Telmatogetoninae. Send Dr. Ashe an email (patrick.ashe at upcmail.ie) for ordering details. (added March 2010)
  
• Older information and links (pre-2010)

Last updated: Tuesday, 22-May-2012 (EB)