Midge Lake is the largest among numerous freshwater lakes on the ice-free

Byers Peninsula Byers Peninsula is a mainly ice-free peninsula forming the west end of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It occupies , borders Ivanov Beach to the northeast and is separated from Rotch Dome on the east by the ridge ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetland Islands, South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands north of the ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. The feature is arcuate in shape, extending 575 m in southwest-northeast direction and 125 m wide, surmounted by Chester Cone on the southeast, and draining through a 2 km stream north-northeastwards into

Baba Tonka Cove Baba Tonka Cove (, ) is the 1.1 km wide cove indenting for 750 m the north coast of Byers Peninsula between Villard Point and Varadero Point on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The area was visited by early 19th cent ...

. The lake's name derives from the

chironomid Chironomidae , commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids , are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid s ...

midge A midge is any small fly, including species in several family (biology), families of non-mosquito nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid ...

''Belgica antarctica'', a rare and localized insect in the South Shetlands, the

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the ''imaginal'' stage ("imaginal" being "imago" in adjective form), the stage in wh ...

s of which are found beneath the surrounding rock debris in summer.

Location

Midge Lake is centred at which is 860 m northwest of Chester Cone and 1.19 km southeast of President Hill (British mapping in 1968, detailed Spanish mapping in 1992, and Bulgarian mapping in 2005 and 2009).

Maps

Península Byers, Isla Livingston.
Mapa topográfico a escala 1:25000. Madrid: Servicio Geográfico del Ejército, 1992. * L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005. * L. Ivanov
Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands.
Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009. * L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2017.

References

Midge Lake.
SCAR

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about th ...

Bodies of water of Livingston Island Lakes of the South Shetland Islands {{LivingstonIsland-geo-stub