Additional Cricotopus myriophylli Information:

Cricotopus myriophylli Oliver (Oliver 1984) is a member of the midge or Chironomidae family (Diptera). The adults fly but do not feed; oviposition behavior is not known, but somehow larvae land on milfoil meristems. The larvae eat the watermilfoil meristem and spin a tufted case (MacRae and Ring 1993). One generation is produced per year and larvae overwinter in the water under the ice. Host choice work indicates that the larvae are highly specific to watermilfoils: larvae can develop on the exotic Eurasian and the native northern watermilfoil, but will not successfully develop on other genera of aquatic plants (MacRae et al. 1990). The midge is endemic to North America (including the midwest) and its native host was likely northern watermilfoil, however, it readily adopted Eurasian watermilfoil as a new host (Kangasniemi et al. 1993, Newman and Maher 1995). The midge was associated with milfoil declines in British Columbia (Kangasniemi et al. 1993), unfortunately, research was curtailed. Although the midge appears not to be as promising as the weevil, it deserves more research and consideration. Furthermore, for the scientifically curious, the midge is rather unique and worthy of study. It is a very rare example of a submersed aquatic macrophyte specialist herbivore from a predominantly aquatic family (Chironomidae). Most specialist herbivores are from predominantly terrestrial families, such as beetles and moths (Newman 1991). Little is known about oviposition behavior of the adults or how larvae end up on the appropriate host plant. Nothing is known about how this species evolved from the other members of the broadly occurring Cricotopus genus or the C. sylvestris group, which appears to be composed of generalists, albeit often associated with macrophytes.