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hi insektforum,

Today I saw some dancing midges(?) near a lake by Amsterdam.
I think they awake by some good sunlight today!

I catched one, put it in a bottle and made a drawing of it.
The wings are complicated to draw, you don't see details.

it got long legs, high round thorax and long (little green/red shiny) wings with some little dark dots inside it. The antennes are thin and on the it's back I see two antennes(??) I've never seen before!

the tail got a pair of pincers/nippers like male dragonfly's can have.

I hope you got an impression of it, maiby you can help me finding the family of it?

greetings Robert Heemskerk

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Hello, Robert!



I think what you see there as a second pair of "antennae" are the halteres (I hope, that is the correct english term, german Halteren), the second reduced wing pair of the midge.

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this 'things' I see are also on this drwawing of a Trichocera, so I think you are right J?rgen.
Must me the 'halteren'

(Trichocera-specie??)

regards Robert,

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Trichoceridae sounds right, especially at this time of year, as they are called winter midges or winter craneflies. Most of the larger swarming midges in this time of year (on northern temperata hemisphere, that is) probably are Trichoceridae.

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nice to know! :)

When I look at the drawing now, the haltern point to much in the air.
The direction of these haltern are more in the line of the wings

Regards Robert,

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Still, when flies and midges are killed, the way the halteres are positioned (the direction they point) can be very dependent on how the muscles contract. Sometimes they are pointing straight upwards.