A Chaoborus Bibliography

Abstract

The beautiful transparent “phantom” larvae of Chaoborus (= Corethra of authors) are the only truly planktonic insects. Their ubiquity and hardiness made them favorites of the early microscopists, and they have been the subject of a considerable but scattered literature, produced mainly by freshwater biologists and invertebrate physiologists. The non-biting Chaoborus adults are far less well studied. Entomologists have often given them only taxonomic treatment, except for one species—the Clear Lake gnat, C. astictopus Dyar & Shannon—whose swarms are considered a nuisance in California. “Kungu cakes,” compacted masses of Chaoborus adults, are eaten by natives near Lake Malawi (= Lake Nyassa), where the flies occur in massive swarms. These are nematocerous Diptera, closely allied to the Culicidae, in which family they were formerly included. They are now often placed in a separate family, Chaoboridae.