Biting Midges (Ceratopogonidae) - 79 Species, Identification & Facts

Allohelea johannseni

Identification: Mesonotum dark brown with large, irregular, pruinose gray areas. Has been reared from Boletus fungi.

Alluaudomyia paraspina

Identification: Female distinguished from other North American Alluaudomyia by the combination of wing with 12 spots, some spots in white patches, legs mottled, abdomen black with white tip but without white bands. Male identified by genital features

Atrichopogon fusculus

Identification: Distinguished from other North American Atrichopogon by the combination of proboscis and palps longer than head, scutellum with four strong marginal bristles, and basal segments of female antenna shorter than broad. Female is general

Atrichopogon levis

"This is easily the most common ceratopogonid in Ohio. The same is true in Illinois and probably elsewhere in this general region. Adults abound in grassy areas such as lawns, parks, and cemeteries to such an extent that the species has been nickname

Bezzia glabra

Identification: Part of the bicolor group (see Wirth, W. W. 1983. The North American Predaceous Midges of the Bezzia bicolor Group (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). The Florida Entomologist, 66, 292–310. https://doi.org/10.2307/3494125)

Bezzia solstitialis

Diagnosed in Wirth et al. 1984. This species was listed as a synonym of B. circumdata in . A later study (Dominiak & Szadziewski 2018) found that synonymy to be incorrect.

Clinohelea bimaculata

Identification: "Distinguished from all other Nearctic Clinohelea by the following combination of characters: legs mainly yellow with a dark subapical band on the hind femur, two-spotted wings, and antennal pedicel yellow." -- Grogan and Wirth 1976 (

Clinohelea curriei

Identification: "Distinguished from all other Nearctic Clinohelea by the following combination of characters: fore 5th tarsomere with pale band longer than width of 5th tarsomere; wing with infuscation centered over 1st radial cell or entirely infusc

Culicoides villosipennis

Identification: More information in (Slide 150-152)

Forcipomyia bipunctata

Identification: A brown species with rows of scales on mid and hind tibiae of female (in addition to long hairs) but not on fore tibiae. Wing with contrasting pale spots.

Forcipomyia bystraki

"Large species with pale yellow legs, distal 1/2 of hind femur and narrow band on distal portion of hind tibia brown."

Forcipomyia fuliginosa

Identification: The only known North American Ceratopogonidae parasitic on caterpillars.

Forcipomyia macswaini

Identification: The only species in western North America with six pale marginal wing spots (two of them large).

Forcipomyia pictoni

Identification: Thorax black on top and white on the sides. Legs mostly pale, with narrow black bands near tips of mid and hind femora and black spots on tibiae. Not a predatory species. In the tropics this species pollinates cocoa (as do many smal

Forcipomyia pluvialis

Identification: A small, pale species with two dark spots on the wing, occasionally with additional small spots at the ends of veins, sides of scutellum spotted, legs brown or yellow with brown apices of segments.

Heteromyia fasciata

Identification: Distinguished from the other North American species, H. prattii , by the white pruinosity on top of the abdomen.

Jenkinshelea albaria

"This species is commonly found around lakes and streams and ranges west to Texas and Illinois, northwards to Ontario."

Johannsenomyia annulicornis

Identification: Distinguished from J. argentata by the entirely dark female abomen and the lack of a preapical yellow ring on the hind femur.

Monohelea jamnbacki

Identification: Males have characteristic genitalia; females cannot be separated from closely related species (e.g. texana and macfiei).

Phaenobezzia opaca

Identification: Distinguished from P. sabroskyi by smaller size and lighter wing color. Distinguished from P. fulvithorax by more narrowly separated eyes

Probezzia albiventris

Identification: Thorax, halteres, most of femora, and tibiae black. Wing, abdomen, and tarsomeres 1-3 white.

Probezzia infuscata

Identification: Distinguished from other North American Probezzia by the combination of wing with base white and distal two thirds dark, halter knob dark, tibiae and distal part of femora dark.

Probezzia pallida

Identification: Female is the palest North American Probezzia . See key linked from genus page.

Probezzia seminigra

Identification: Keyed out in Wirth's 1994 key by having a fully pale wing with whitish veins, scutum entirely dark, abdomen and halteres entirely pale, hind tibia with a broad sub-basal dark region and a narrowly dark apex, fore femur only dark on ex

Sphaeromias bifidus

Identification: Female is darker than S. longipennis . Male has bifurcate gonostylus, after which the species is named.

Stilobezzia coquilletti

Identification: Yellow (possibly slightly greenish), two longitudinal brown lines on thorax, margins of most abdominal segments outlined in brown, dark spots on wing at crossvein and apex of R.

Stilobezzia sybleae

Identification: "Beadlike" swelling of posterior branch of R is distinctive among American Stilobezzia (similar swellings occur rarely in some extralimital Ceratopogonidae)

Stilobezzia viridis

Identification: Green (hence the name), one large mark near apex of third abdominal segment, two black dots on fifth segment, wings unmarked except for veins, hind femur dark in last 1/4. These characters will distinguish it from other members of th