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."]

Special: The past year our community has lost a number of influencial researchers whose works have greatly influenced our knowledge. Here we acknowledge our colleagues:

William P. ("Bill") Coffman (1942-2013) - Carlos de la Rosa: "It is with sadness that I share that Dr. William P. Coffman passed away on Friday, 25 of January 2013...An Entomologist, Bill was a biology Professor for 43 years at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the foremost expert on Chironomidae. His work lives-on today as his collection is now housed at the La Selva Biological Station of the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. Additionally, Bill was an avid stamp collector, a WWII history enthusiast, as well as truly enjoying classical music, especially Lieder." Dr. de la Rosa has provided an update (click on Bill's name) with a rememberance and information about Dr. Coffman's midge collection at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ole A. Sæther (1936-2013)
James E. ("Jim") Sublette (1928-2012)
Ernst Josef ("Sepp") Fittkau (1927-2012) - Martin Spies: "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 ..."
Nikolai Zelentsov (1941-2012) - Evgeniy Makarchenko - "He was one of the best Orthocladiinae taxonomists of Russia...I plan with some Russian colleagues to publish notice in EEJ in Russian after receiving main information and good photo from N. Zelentsov's Institute [Institute of Biology of Inland Waters in Borok]. I was his friend and know well about his work and papers but I have not his CV. After that maybe we will publish in English in [the] Chironomus [newsletter]

• Michael Bolton has recently updated the Ohio Chironomidae checklist and larval key, available at the Ohio EPA website. (added April 2013)
• Marion Kotrba announces the 8th International Congress of Dipterology to be held in Potsdam, Germany, from 10-15 August 2014. (added April 2013)
• Registration is open for the 12th International Workshop on Subfossil Chironomids to be held in the New Forest, UK from 10-13th June 2013. Booking options and details can be found at the link (added March 2013)
• Len Ferrington announces a redesign of their group's website "Chironomidae Research Group" at the University of Minnesota (added January 2013)
• Pete Cranston has relocated the site for all publications-to-date and onwards to a new web location. The interactive lucid key to genera (global) was migrated from CD to internet last year. Please check that your browser has the latest Java plugin before complaints about not loading. [Webmaster note as of March 2013: Java (from Oracle, not the java-script of your web browser) has a number of security problems that have not yet been adequately addressed. Once an secure update is available, I will remove this notice] (added October 2012)
• The committee of the 18th International Symposium of the Chironomidae (Elisabeth, Torbjørn and Kaare) are happy to announce that the Proceedings of the Chironomidae symposium held in Trondheim (2011) now is published and available open access through the Fauna norvegica website: http://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/fauna_norvegica. (added October 2012)
• Claus Orendt announces some new keys on chironomid larvae mainly based on macroscopic characters and illustrated by photos elaborated by Martin Spies, Andreas Dettinger-Klemm (in part) and Claus Orendt. One key in its second edition separates central European Chironomini genera, some species or species groups, and is especially useful for beginners. A second key identifies 11 Chironomus species and species groups of significance for water quality evaluation. Another key includes about 90 taxa (genera, species groups, species) recorded from brackish waters in Germany and adjacent North Sea and Baltic Sea areas. Previews, informations and orders: www.hydro-bio.de/chironomidae.htm (added August 2012)
• Torbjørn Ekrem announces that the Chironomidae Bibliography now is available online at http://literature.vm.ntnu.no/Chironomidae/. (added May 2012)
• Lauri Paasivirta has updated a checklist (Excel spreadsheet) to the Chironomidae of Finland. (added May 2012)
• 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)
• Narcís Prat and Maria Rieradevall announce a new key (PDF in Spanish) for determining chironomid larvae of the Andes of Ecuador and Peru. (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)
• 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 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 followingEntomological 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: Friday, 05-Apr-2013 (EB)