A bloodsucker by any other name

[Wayland]

I'm starting to get confused. It's not difficult to do that these days but it's the wee bloodsuckers and their various names that's are starting to do it for me.

Where I grew up in Westmoreland, we commonly had three of them. Gnats, Midges and Horseflies in that order of size.

Being a national and at times international forum we have various beasties being described in postings with just about every dialect name variation possible.

Now I'm no zoologist but the thing I'm not sure of is if we're all talking about the same things or not.

To me a gnat is the tiny blighter, the midge is the medium sized one that looks like the classic mosquito and I don't think there's much confusion about the horsefly, it's big.

So I'm curious,how do these and others get named in your neck of the woods?

 

[Goose]

They generally all get called the same thing when they bite though..........

 

[Grooveski]

To me midges are the little ones, mozzies the medium(I've seen a grand total of one in my life) and clegs(horseflys) are the biggies.

Gnats are wee things, a bit larger than a midgie but they dont bite, they swarm around, attracted to sweat or somesuch, and get on your nerves.
(At least that's what I've been calling them all)

 

[Toddy]

To me midges are the little ones, mozzies the medium(I've seen a grand total of one in my life) and clegs(horseflys) are the biggies.

Gnats are wee things, a bit larger than a midgie but they dont bite, they swarm around, attracted to sweat or somesuch, and get on your nerves.
(At least that's what I've been calling them all)

I agree with Grooveski on all four of them.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Jodie]

I find Wikipedia a good starting point; some links below.

Recently I caught some sort of mozzie about to 'bite' my hand and I let
it pitch in and dine for a few seconds before blowing it away. I could feel
it (which surprised me as I'd never noticed it before until the bite starts to
itch afterwards - but then again I could actually see it doing its stuff) and
it was like a slight but noticeable nip. Quite fascinating to catch one in action.

The itching didn't start until the afternoon the next day. I'm all better now

Midge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge_(insect)

Biting midge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biting_midge

Highland midge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_midge

Gnat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnat

Mosquito
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito

Horsefly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsefly

Jo

 

[sam_acw]

I thought midges were small and non biting, mozzies the bigger ones who have spindly legs and bite you and politicians the biggest ones

 

[Toddy]

Midge = Culicoides Impunctatus
http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.midge.html
and the reason why Himself is called the Lord of Flies!

Gnat = irritating little black flies that keep trying to land on your face, for some reason Forestry Commision tracks seem to attract them

Mosquito = Mozzie or similar looking fluttery thing ( the ones where you see the males *dancing* in spiral clouds) I don't think I've ever seen a real mosquito


Horseflies = clegs Evil, sleekit things, that leave really *nasty*, dirty bites.


I can see why Wayland started this thread though; we all mean different things by the same name.

Cheers,
toddy

 

[SiriusB]

I always thought midges and gnats were interchangeable names for the bugs that fly around in swarms just above your head.

We should have a definitive list! Having said that in general no matter which name we use we all know it'll be some bloodsucking critter that left this world slightly thinner

SiriusB

 

[geoff88]

I am amazed at people not seeing mozzies. They seem to be everywhere I have been, from southern Europe to Arctic Finland. In fact the largest by far that I have seen are in Arctic Scandinavia, about the size of a small bird and drinking blood by the pint.

Geoff

 

[palmnut]

When I was growing up (Norfolk/Suffolk border):

A gnat meant the medium sized spindly legged one.

The midge was the tiny one that bit me half to death on Scottish holidays (based on a conversation like this with a Canadian friend the other day I think that these are called 'no-see-ums' over there - hence the reference to this in the Hennessey hammock descriptions).

The horse fly was an evil thing with slightly golden eyes that would hurt like flip and raise a bump the size of a hen's egg. Terrified of these, I was.

 

[demographic]

Midge is a tiny little thing that swarms around whenever you stop walking.

Mosquito are the noisy little (well they are a fair bit bigger then a midge but still pretty small) sods that you can hear in a hotel room somewhere hot and you just know that it's just waiting for you to fall asleep.
Only seen two or three of them over here though.

Horseflies/Clegs are about the size of a housefly and cruise into land while using advanced cloaking technology, In order to re-fuel they must first switch off their cloaking device which is usually the point when you notice one.
When you realise its sucking the life out of you they fly off into the nearest tree with a fair sized lump of flesh to eat it at their leasure
Nasty barstewards.

 

[EdS]

there are 4 common species of mozzie in the UK (Anopheles spp can carry malaria in Europe - A. plumbeus occurs in UK), about 14 midge species both belong to the Culicidae family - all the mozzies bite but not all midges.

There are 10 species of Tabanidae (Horse flies) including the dreadded cleg - all can bite.

We get most of them includging proper big mozzies - the joys of living surrounded by woods and sewage works.

 

[JonnyP]

I had them all round me this evening, been out with the moth trap and the amount of flying things it attracts is amazing, wasps of all shape and size, hornets, miggies, mozzies, strange large fly with yellow wings and amazing yellow eyes, gnats, crane flys, caddis flys, etc, oh and some moths too........
I am still scratching.............

 

[gregorach]

I got bit once by something about an inch long, with a black and white stripped adbomen and big green goggly eyes. When it bit it felt like being stabbed, and I had to hit it hard, several times, to dislodge it... Drawing blood in the process.

Is that a horsefly?

 

[Wayland]

Sounds like it to me....

 

[JonnyP]

I got bit once by something about an inch long, with a black and white stripped adbomen and big green goggly eyes. When it bit it felt like being stabbed, and I had to hit it hard, several times, to dislodge it... Drawing blood in the process.

Is that a horsefly?

The bite sounds right, bloomin hurts, but they havn't got black and white stripes though, they have more a brown colour, but some have stripes and the eyes on them are amazing..........

 

[Grooveski]

Sure was.

Look familiar?
http://bugguide.net/node/view/18943

Not the most common type round here but I've seen a few.

 

[dwardo]

I got bit once by something about an inch long, with a black and white stripped adbomen and big green goggly eyes. When it bit it felt like being stabbed, and I had to hit it hard, several times, to dislodge it... Drawing blood in the process.

Is that a horsefly?

Sounds like it, i do a lot of bivying/fishing so always loads of horse flies and mozzies. The other tell tale sign is they seem to sting and bite at the same time ie 2 separate place one at the tail and one at the head. The best way to tell is it hurts like a $^&*$&*%^& when its a horse fly and not when its a mozzie. Loads of High Deet spray works wonders.

 

[Toddy]

Horseflies/Clegs are about the size of a housefly and cruise into land while using advanced cloaking technology, In order to re-fuel they must first switch off their cloaking device which is usually the point when you notice one.
When you realise its sucking the life out of you they fly off into the nearest tree with a fair sized lump of flesh to eat it at their leasure
Nasty b*****s.

Best description yet "advanced cloaking technology"
Horrible things, they come up from the burn over the side fence and can make life miserable.
There haven't been so many this year, I usually have four or five bites over Summer and so far (touch wood) I've had none) but there's been a huge increase in the newts so maybe they've eaten more of the larvae.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Wayland]

I had one that got me in Norway this year.

I saw him but far too late. The bite swelled so much I could hardly move two of my fingers for days.