the.com/midge
a speck of an insect that pollinates your chocolate and ruins your hike.
means A tiny flying insect, often appearing in swarms near water, some species of which bite while others simply hover in irritating clouds.
from From Old English 'mycg,' meaning gnat, with deep Germanic roots — it's a cousin of Dutch 'mug' and German 'Mücke,' all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic word for these small biting flies. The same ancient lineage gives us 'midget,' which once simply meant a sand fly before it drifted, unkindly, toward describing very small people.
- cocoa hero
- Only midges pollinate the cacao flower
- tiny wings
- Beats wings over 1,000 times per second
- swarm season
- Scottish midges drive away campers each summer
- short life
- Adults may live only a few days
- name root
- Old English word meaning small fly
ceratopogonidae — family of biting midges with over 4,000 species, includes no-see-ums that draw blood from humans
chironomidae — non-biting midge family with ~15,000 species, larvae form massive swarms in lakes and rivers
hessian fly — mayetiola destructor, a midge pest that destroyed wheat crops in 19th century north america