The end of the Midgepocalypse in the US and Canada

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Few major insect groups on iNaturalist have been as neglected as the non-biting midges. With nearly 120k observations worldwide, how many are research grade? Before I set out on my mission to help Chironomidae on iNaturalist, there were only about 1000 RG observations worldwide, or 0.8% of all Chironomidae observations. 0.8%! Now, why is this? Well, nobody has been identifying chironomids to species in large amounts. There are many reasons why this has been the case, the biggest reason being the difficulty. Here’s the thing, though: There are >1,150 chironomid species in the US and Canada. If 90% of all those species were impossible to ID through photo, there would still be 115 species able to be identified. Species ID of Chironomidae is quite difficult but not impossible, though sometimes, depending on the species, can be quite easy.

Currently, though, there are many issues with Chironomidae on iNaturalist. Many past identifications are inaccurate, with some species groups nearing 100% inaccuracy rates. Then there is the Computer Vision. The CV can be incredibly helpful, but for it to work properly, it needs to be trained with good data, and the data the CV currently has about Chironomidae needs to be corrected. As we’ve seen in past forum posts, inaccurate identifications lead to further inaccurate identifications, which creates a vicious cycle. That’s why there are over 25k Chironomus observations, despite the genus being very difficult to, in many cases, impossible to ID species from most photos.

I wanted to try and make a difference, so I tracked down a book on adult Tanypodinae (Roback 1971) and started reading to learn how to ID certain species. It went very well, and I started making a visible difference in the data quality on iNat. While it started as a personal passion project to help the community, my identification efforts did not go unnoticed, and I began working with @zdanko, @mabuva2021, and @edanko to organize our collective knowledge and work on fixing the Midgepocalypse. This will take time, but hopefully, we can help shift the information that is currently stuck in journal articles into the public sphere of knowledge.

I really must thank @zdanko, @mabuva2021, and @edanko for their support during this. Identifying midges can be a huge challenge, and I don’t know if I would have made it this far if I had continued doing this by myself.

Thanks to our combined efforts, new species for iNaturalist are slowly being identified, accuracy rates of chironomid IDs are being improved, and enough species are being identified to help train the CV.

There are now 3200 RG observations of Chironomidae, even after removing a couple hundred misidentified observations. Any products of our work will be available at https://sites.google.com/view/flyguide/species-guides, with our notes currently available at the bottom of the page.

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2/60 RG in my observations. Grateful for any help you provide.

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Thanks for doing this. I spend a lot of time around water and sometimes see nonbiting midges in great numbers. I had been given to understand that they are impossible to ID from photos so usually I slap a Chiromomidae or Chitonomus on it and move on knowing that’s the end of it. If there’s a realitic chance they might get IDed more finely I will probably post more. When I visit family on western Lake Erie there are sometimes millions of the critters pretty much everywhere.

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Amazing work! I don’t know if you have these already, or if they’re up to date/any help, but both of these have been floating around for a while and could be of use

https://web.archive.org/web/20130615015250/http://esc-sec.ca/aafcmonographs/manual_of_nearctic_diptera_vol_1.pdf
(Pages 433-468 are about Chironomidae, adult and larva)

https://web.archive.org/web/20130615030526/http://esc-sec.ca/aafcmonographs/insects_and_arachnids_part_11.pdf
The entire thing is a key for larval Chironomidae in Canada

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Your post is very inspiring for me as an identifier and you are awsome if you undertook such an awesome project. I dream of doing the same for the local bees, but I’m still not good enough for that.
Keep up the great work and the best luck with your upcoming book!!

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We have both of those resources at hand, of course. Our identification efforts have been restricted to adult midges so far.

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One important note is that there is incredible diversity in the subfamily Chironominae, so while Chironomus is very common, it represents only a small portion of the true generic diversity.

Therefore, you definitely should post more! You never know what you’ll find, considering that many chironomid species look very similar ;)

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We’re currently working on a set of notes for generic and species ID for Chironomidae which will be available at https://sites.google.com/view/flyguide, rather than a physical book. That way, anyone will be able to access it. Individual groups with fully fleshed-out notes will have illustrated keys in the Species Guides section.

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I would love to see more of your posts of non biting midges. Like zdanko said, they have a huge amount of diversity. Chironomus species can be common in certain areas, but there are so many other genera of all shapes, sizes and colors.

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I’m glad to have inspired you, and I believe that really anybody that’s motivated about identification can learn more about it. I started by finding a book that Identifies adult midges of the subfamily tanypodinae. I’m sure there are some books or papers on the identification of local bees.

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This sounds like a great project, thanks so much for the effort of all of you!

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I looked through your midge observations and IDed what i currently know. I also favorited any midges with distinctive features that could lead to a future ID once we gain more knowledge.

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I did something similar with a few much smaller groups of species–it’s a rewarding endeavor. Thanks for making this effort, the midges deserve a little appreciation and you will have drummed up some interest in the group!

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Thanks, Zach. Any tips on what good photographs for Chironomid ID would need to show?

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Great post and happy to be helping to ID midges!

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It depends on the group, but generally the fore legs, or all legs if possible including the tips, wing veins, abdomen, thorax, and male genitalia can all be very useful for ID.

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Thank you for getting my midges to RG, I thought those would never be identified

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Thank you for the IDs on Chironomidae. I had collected photos over years and many of the photos had remained at Family level until recently.

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Your all welcome. Feel free to tag me on any midge observations of yours or somebody else’s you come across that you think look interesting, or unique. No guarantees on an ID, but I have been favoriting any midges I think could be IDed in the future after more research is done, or just IDing them if I know them.

Currently an issue I am having is actually finding the midges that have unique characteristics that allows them to be IDed. I’ve resorted to just skimming through 1000s of midge observations in a sitting looking for them. Which isn’t the best experience, but works alright.

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Thank you so much for taking this on! I don’t have many Chironomid observations, and the one that’s RG is a real beauty! I’m curious about the Winter Midges I have posted. We encounter them in abundance each year. Here is my entire collection of seven Chironomids: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=53275&user_id=susan_kielb&verifiable=any.