{"id":8303,"date":"2026-06-20T19:10:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T19:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=8303"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:04:17","slug":"2026-06-harmless-fungus-midge-mistaken-for-mosquito-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-06-harmless-fungus-midge-mistaken-for-mosquito-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Not all buzz is bad: Mistaking a harmless fungus midge for a campsite mosquito"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meet <em>Mycomya<\/em>, a massive, globally distributed genus of fungus midges within the family <em>Mycetophilidae<\/em>, encompassing over 400 described species. These delicate, mosquito-like flies are easily recognized by their distinctively humped thoraxes and elongated legs. Unlike midges that target living plant roots, <em>Mycomya<\/em> larvae are strictly fungivores, feeding on the spores and hyphae of rotting timber and bracket fungi like the turkey tail (<em>Trametes versicolor<\/em>). Remarkably, while most midges remain dormant in the cold, certain specialized species are active throughout the winter, taking flight on mild, snowy Scandinavian days. Because the adults look nearly identical to the naked eye, entomologists must examine the microscopic, highly intricate structures of their reproductive organs to identify individual species. I spotted this elegant midge resting at a Finnish campsite. My first instinct was to swat it away, assuming it was a common mosquito, but a closer look through the lens revealed the unmistakable, gentle profile of a true forest recycler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Mycomya, a massive, globally distributed genus of fungus midges within the family Mycetophilidae, encompassing over 400 described species. These [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[],"countries":[63,1371],"order-category":[44,1298,60],"class_list":["post-8303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mycophages-fungivores","countries-europe","countries-europe-finland","order-category-insects-flies","order-category-insects-flies-fungus-midges","order-category-insects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8308,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303\/revisions\/8308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=8303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}