I live in SW Wiltshire, UK and recently have noticed many small black
insects (flies?) flying - continuously criss-crossing just above the water
in my pond. They seem to be searching. They drop down momentarily onto any
small thing on the surface - including the feet impressions in the meniscus
of water boatman.

Does anybody know what these are likely to be and what they search for?

cheers, Davy

Sounds like the ubiquitous gnat.

Apparently there are 300 odd species in the UK.
-http://www.gardensafari.net/english/mosquitoes.htm

This is a good bit of information about the lowly gnat ~
Large mating swarms of adults often appear about dusk and may occur for several days, especially after a prolonged wet period. Many gnats are attracted to light and may be a nuisance, landing on people or entering homes or businesses. These tiny flies do not feed. They only live long enough to mate, lay eggs, and die. Eggs are laid in masses in the water or on aquatic vegetation. The life cycle usually takes about 4 to 5 weeks. There may be several generations during the summer but these insects usually disappear with the onset of dry weather. Fortunately, problems are usually temporary and intermittent.
from USA page http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ent...ruct/ef632.htm

k :-)

kthirtya wrote, On 29/04/2007 21:18:
Sounds like the ubiquitous gnat.

Apparently there are 300 odd species in the UK.
-http://www.gardensafari.net/english/mosquitoes.htm

This is a good bit of information about the lowly gnat ~
Large mating swarms of adults often appear about dusk and may occur for several days, especially after a prolonged wet period. Many gnats are attracted to light and may be a nuisance, landing on people or entering homes or businesses. These tiny flies do not feed. They only live long enough to mate, lay eggs, and die. Eggs are laid in masses in the water or on aquatic vegetation. The life cycle usually takes about 4 to 5 weeks. There may be several generations during the summer but these insects usually disappear with the onset of dry weather. Fortunately, problems are usually temporary and intermittent.
from USA page http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ent...ruct/ef632.htm

k :-)

I saw something similar this weekend is North Essex. Just a little
smaller than a house fly, but with larger lacier black wings. There were
not gnats or midges, too big. The whole insect had a skinny but slightly
fluffy appearance. I imagine they wont be around for long, the flying
technique around the pond was pretty bad.
Another strange insect seen this weekend was a larger black fly with two
long dangling legs. They were in hedgerows and repeatedly flew at us
with they freaky legs while walking.
You have to lets us get excited about things like this, we have so few
interesting insects in the UK

--
DavidM
www.djmorgan.org.uk

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:51:38 CST, DavidM
wrote:

You have to lets us get excited about things like this, we have so few
interesting insects in the UK

We are getting a greater variety of insects as the temperature
increases. I'm not sure it's all good news!

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com

This is all very interesting!
I read once where there are still millions of
buggy species still needing to be identified.

Let us know if you find out any more information
or something pops up in the news.

k :-)

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:35:33 CST, kthirtya wrote:

This is all very interesting!
I read once where there are still millions of
buggy species still needing to be identified.
...

Sorry, but this reminded me of a question I used to be asked fairly
often by non-cavers: "Exactly how many undiscovered caves are there?"
I didn't have a cute quip then and I still haven't come up with one.
--
Galen Hekhuis
I can't recall...

Went looking and found ~

entomologists estimate that over 800,000 insect species have been named and described since Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) founded the modern system of nomenclature (genus and species) for all plants and animals...Discovery of a new species of vertebrate is a rare event -- only a handful have been found in the past 20 years.* But millions of undiscovered insect species are still hiding in the soil, in the canopies of tropical rain forests, and even right in our own backyards.* Entomologists describe hundreds of these new species each year, and still estimate that only one-half to one-third of the earth's total insect fauna has even yet been discovered.* In the final analysis, two of every three living species may be insects.
from:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent4...t01/index.html

kinda makes you feel all creepy crawly!

k :-)

Galen, did you ever come across 'cave insects',
adapted to living in the dark? Or other cave
critters like that - such as fish in underground pools (in
an attempt to keep this in the watery topic
area).

k :-)

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:43:23 CST, kthirtya wrote:

Galen, did you ever come across 'cave insects',
adapted to living in the dark? Or other cave
critters like that - such as fish in underground pools (in
an attempt to keep this in the watery topic
area).

k :-)

Many of them have lost not only eyesight, but also pigmentation. Some
of them have become blind, albino cousins of their same kind that live
on the surface. Others are largely unchanged from those who dwell
outside a cave. There are blind, albino fish, crayfish, spiders,
centipedes, just oodles of things running around in caves. I don't
want to make it sound like a garden environment, it isn't. There
isn't much in the way of nutrients in a cave per se, those that are
there have to be washed in by water or carried into the cave. There
are beetles that live their whole lives in caves, but survive on the
droppings of bats, which must exit the cave to find their nutrition.
It has been discovered, somewhat recently, that there are several
kinds of bacteria that seem to be capable of transforming elements (in
this case, sulphur) directly into energy, without requiring any
external light input. (Well, I think it is pretty remarkable,
anyway.) These bacteria may have played a greater role in cave
development than water, in some cases. There are also some examples
of food chains based on these same bacteria, but I digress. At first
glance, a cave looks like a sterile environment. There is no light
whatsoever, there is nothing growing, just water and rocks and mud.
Surely nothing could survive there. But then there are
speleobiologists and several many universities giving advanced degrees
in speleobiology (speleo meaning "cave" in Greek) so there must be
something to study.
--
Galen Hekhuis
"Mistakes were made"

speleobiologists

Who'd have thought!
I'm in awe of people who can go into
caves, and then underwater in caves.

I can't read a book about the hero going
into a cave without getting uncomfortable
and being so glad I'm not in there with
him!

Nature is amazingly adaptive.

k :-)

"kthirtya" wrote in message
ups.com...
Sounds like the ubiquitous gnat.

Apparently there are 300 odd species in the UK.
-http://www.gardensafari.net/english/mosquitoes.htm

This is a good bit of information about the lowly gnat ~
Large mating swarms of adults often appear about dusk and may occur for
several days, especially after a prolonged wet period. Many gnats are
attracted to light and may be a nuisance, landing on people or entering
homes or businesses. These tiny flies do not feed. They only live long
enough to mate, lay eggs, and die. Eggs are laid in masses in the water or
on aquatic vegetation. The life cycle usually takes about 4 to 5 weeks.
There may be several generations during the summer but these insects usually
disappear with the onset of dry weather. Fortunately, problems are usually
temporary and intermittent.
from USA page http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ent...ruct/ef632.htm

k :-)


But if gnats, why were they hunting over the surface?

Davy

"DavidM" wrote in message
...
Another strange insect seen this weekend was a larger black fly with two
long dangling legs. They were in hedgerows and repeatedly flew at us
with they freaky legs while walking.

David, these are St Marks flies which are common now around St Marks day.
They seem to be harmless but do bumble into things - including humans!

Davy

Davy wrote But if gnats, why were they hunting over the surface?

We may be having a word association mix up here.
Biting and blood sucking gnat-type critters are called
mosquitoes on the North American side of the pond.

The term gnat, in the UK, seems to cover all sorts of
critters, which I found out from the first website I found
-http://www.gardensafari.net/english/mosquitoes.htm
(I just love the internet)

Gnats, here, are a number of non-biting bitty flies.
They do not feed.
Their time over the pond is spent flirting, courting, mating and
laying eggs in water or on aquatic vegetation.

Usually, non-feeding gnats, or small flies, hatch out
and swarm over the pond, do their duties, set the next
generation in motion and fall to the pond to get snapped
up by fish or
become a handy fast food stop for
dragonflies and birds.

k :-)

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:40:34 CST, kthirtya wrote:

Davy wrote But if gnats, why were they hunting over the surface?

We may be having a word association mix up here.
Biting and blood sucking gnat-type critters are called
mosquitoes on the North American side of the pond.


Not really. We have gnats that bite and gnats that don't bite and the
mosquitos that are distinct from gnats over here on our side of the
Atlantic.

They fly over the surface to lay eggs or right after they hatch from
eggs. If you'd read up on fly fishing, you'd find out more about tiny
water breeding bugs than you'd ever want to know. Fish who can jump
eat the bugs that come too close to the water. Fish that are deeper
eat the bugs as they come out of the eggs and swim to the surface. Fly
fishermen make little imitation bugs and catch fish with them.
--

r.bc: vixen
Minnow goddess, Speaker to squirrels, willow watcher.
Almost entirely harmless. Really.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:05:32 CST, Galen Hekhuis
wrote:

At first
glance, a cave looks like a sterile environment. There is no light
whatsoever, there is nothing growing, just water and rocks and mud.
Surely nothing could survive there.

I'm glad we have you to tell us about it, because I would never find
out by exploring.

Regards,

Hal