around a lake or stream in the evening and had a small insect go
into your eye, mouth or even up your nose? That insect may have been an adult
midge. Midges are a kind of fly and the young of most midges live in the water.
I'm a kind of midge called an Orthoclad and young Orthoclads like me have nice
green bodies. If you look closely you'll see that I have a head and eyes, but
I've got no legs at this stage of my life.
You might notice that I do a lot of dancing even when I stay in
one place; that dancing is helping to keep water flowing past my body which
helps me to breathe. We Orthoclads are a tough bunch. We don't mind when the sun
heats our stream and we are happy living amongst the thick slimy algae that
grows in some farmland streams. If Orthoclads like me were the only creature you
could find in a stream, it might mean that the stream water is pretty yucky so
maybe you shouldn't be playing in it!
;void('');)
