Book Description

Excerpt from The Chironomidae, or Midges, of Illinois, With Particular Reference to the Species Occurring in the Illinois River The members of this family are among the commonest and most widely distributed Of the two-winged ies, occurring on every conti nent and in all the fauna] areas into which these continents have been divided. Although considerably over one thousand species have been described, it is certain that this is but a small fraction of the total num ber of species which must occur throughout the world. The reasons for this paucity of described species are obvious. The fragile strue ture of most of the species prevents their being readily preserved, and their frequent close similarity deters all but a few specialists from working on the family. Despite the extremely fragile structure of the members Of this family many fossil species have been described by various authors. Conjectures as to the possible sources from which the family sprang must remain, as in the case of other families, mere conjectures, serving only to create purely academic discussion, which has no proper place in the present paper. It may, however, be useful to students Of the Diptera to indicate, as clearly as possible from the available data, the characteristics of the family. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."