midges

From that perspective, the legionary is not merely damp and covered in midges but also being used as a bullet point in the emperor’s performance review.

The article mentions that the caves are filled with millions of midges providing plenty of food.

Oh don’t worry - the midges are doing a great job of keeping it that way!

So the whole food-chain here is: sulfur -> bacteria -> midges -> spiders.

And biting midges have only been in Iceland for 10 years or so.

As someone who's been to Scotland but not Ireland, do you have midges?

Could a cloud of midges make a path to ground for lightning?

Iceland does have a lot of gnats, midges, flies etc.

Anopheles/Aedes/Culex mosquitos are the grey goo of insects, driving other flies, midges, and even mosquitos (which local fish and larval predators have evolved with) to exinction.

I wonder what kind of social and political effects the midges had.

In either case I'd worry about midges and mosquitos first.

From the article: > The vast spider population is attributed to an abundant food supply: more than 2.4 million midges in the cave, ready to be entangled in the intricate web.

There are more midges than water!" > "What do they live on when they can't get hobbit?" asked Sam, scratching his neck.

Yeh but in my experience in Ireland, the midges are mainly a problem in the non-native and fast growing species found in the "managed" Coillte forrests.

Midges in the Scottish Highlands are so sensitive to wind that the act of hiking itself creates enough of a breeze to prevent them from biting.

Midges and mosquitos are different things.