Chaoborus punctipennis

Chaoborus punctipennis · Order: Diptera · Family: Chaoboridae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Chaoborus punctipennis
Photo: Katja Schulz, CC BY

Chaoborus punctipennis belongs to the phantom midge family. It moves up and down through water layers to avoid fish predators.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It travels vertically in the water to stay out of reach of fish.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 48 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Vermont, California, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, New York, Illinois.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Chaoborus punctipennis photo 3
Photo: unknown, CC0
Chaoborus punctipennis photo 4
Photo: Victor Engel, CC BY
Chaoborus punctipennis photo 5
Photo: Cecil Smith, CC BY
Chaoborus punctipennis photo 6
Photo: Healthy Yards, CC BY

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoborus_punctipennis

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.