Phantom Midge
This little lady came to our porch light on September 1, 2025. She was about half the size of the average mosquito.
It is one of the “Phantom Midges” in the family Chaoboridae, and I think she looks like Chaoborus punctipennis, which BugGuide says is “The common Eastern species”. And I say “she”, because the antennae are small and inconspicuous, while male midges in this species have enormous, fluffy antennae.
These superficially resemble mosquitoes, but they are not. The larvae live in stagnant water, like mosquito larvae do, but they are primarily predatory, eating microscopic animals like rotifers. Since they are eating other animals instead of plants, they don’t have the chronic protein deficiency problem that mosquitoes do, and so the adults don’t need to seek out blood for the protein to make viable eggs. These midges apparently don’t feed at all as adults, they simply mate and lay eggs right away. So, just because something resembles a mosquito, that doesn’t mean it will bite.
“Since they are eating other animals instead of plants, they don’t have the chronic protein deficiency problem that mosquitoes do, and so the adults don’t need to seek out blood for the protein to make viable eggs. ”
I did not know that!