Midge

Description

Chironomus riparius,also known as Chironomus thummi and commonly known as the harlequin fly,is a species of non-biting midge.Their larvae are known by the common name of blood worm due to their red colouration.It is common in both North America and Europe.The species was described in 1804 by Johann Wilhelm Meigen.C.riparius has been used extensively as a model for genome structure analysis in insects and is also used in toxicology tests and functional developmental genetic studies.Both their adult and larval forms have been implicated as disease vectors but are also an important part of freshwater food chains.Harlequin flies are small dipterans which resemble mosquitoes.