Chaoboridae, commonly known as phantom midges or glassworms, is a family of fairly common midges with a

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

distribution. They are closely related to the

Corethrellidae Corethrellidae are a family of biting midges, small flying insects belonging to the order Diptera, females of which feed on the blood of frogs. The members of the family are sometimes known as frog-biting midges. The family currently consists of ...

and

Chironomidae 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 ...

; the adults are differentiated through peculiarities in wing venation. ChaoborusSpec

If they eat at all, the adults feed on nectar. The larvae are aquatic and unique in their feeding method: the antennae of phantom midge larvae are modified into grasping organs slightly resembling the raptorial arms of a

mantis Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate a ...

, with which they capture prey. They feed largely on small insects such as

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

larvae and crustaceans such as ''

Daphnia ''Daphnia'' is a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, in length. ''Daphnia'' are members of the Order (biology), order Anomopoda, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their Saltation (gait), ...

''. The antennae impale or crush the prey, and then bring it to the larval mouth, or stylet. The larvae swim and sometimes form large swarms in their

lacustrine A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

habitats.

Description

The larvae are nearly transparent, sometimes with a slightly yellow cast; their most opaque features are two air bags, one in the thorax, one in the abdomen about in the second last segment. The adults are delicate flies that closely resemble

. Their antennae are 15-segmented and the females' antennae are somewhat bristly; the males' antennae, in contrast, are very plumose. In this respect, too, they resemble many of the

Nematocera The Nematocera (the name meaning "thread-horns") are a suborder of elongated fly, flies with thin, segmented antenna (biology), antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies except for species from suborder ...

, and in particular the Chironomidae. The species vary in size from about 2 mm to 10 mm long in their adult stages.

Genera

There are about 90 species in the family Chaoboridae in about 17

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

and 11 extinct

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

. * '' Astrocorethra'' Kalugina, 1986 * '' Australomochlonyx'' Freeman, 1962 * '' Chaoborites'' Kalugina 1985 * ''

Chaoborus ''Chaoborus'' is a genus of midges in the family Chaoboridae. The larvae are known as glassworms because they are transparency (optics), transparent. They can be found commonly in lakes all over the world and can be up to . The adults are sometim ...

'' Lichtenstein, 1800 * '' Chironomaptera'' Ping, 1928 * '' Cryophila'' Edwards, 1930 * '' Culicites'' * '' Eucorethra'' Underwood, 1903 * ''

Eucorethrina ''Eucorethrina'' is a genus of flies belonging to the family Chaoboridae Chaoboridae, commonly known as phantom midges or glassworms, is a family of fairly common midges with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are closely related to the Coreth ...

'' Kalugina, 1985 * '' Helokrenia'' Kalugina, 1985 * '' Hypsocorethra'' Kalugina, 1985 * '' Mesochaoborus'' Zhang, Zhang, Liu & Shangguan, 1986 * '' Mochlonyx'' Loew, 1844 * '' Palaeomochlonyx'' Seredszus & Wichard, 2009 * '' Peusomyia'' Sæther, 1970 * '' Praechaoborus'' Kalugina, 1985 * '' Promochlonyx'' Edwards, 1930 * † '' Baleiomyia'' Kalugina, 1993 * † '' Chachotosha'' Lukashevich, 1996 * † '' Chaoburmus'' Lukashevich, 2000 * † '' Dixamima'' Rohdendorf, 1951 * † '' Gedanoborus'' Szadziewski & Gilłka, 2007 * † '' Jordanobotomus'' Kaddumi, 2005 * † '' Libanoculex'' Azar, Nel, Huang & Engel, 2023 * † '' Mesocorethra'' Kalugina, 1993 * † '' Rhaetomyia'' Rohdendorf, 1962 * † '' Taimyborus'' Lukashevich, 1999 * † '' Triassomyia'' Lukashevich, 2022

References

External links

*
Image Gallery from Diptera.info
* {{Authority control Nematocera families