Dear Readers, there are very slim pickings for the insect enthusiastic in December, but if you take a walk on a cold, sunny day you might see clouds of these tiny flies. Known as winter gnats, they are a member of the fly family, and they are amongst the few species which emerge as adults in winter. When you see them flying, you are looking at a group of males who are trying to attract a female – they fly up and down, being careful not to bump into one another. But, if you watch closely, you can see that each one is defending a small three-dimensional territory, which he hopes will impress any passing females.

Winter gnat (Trichocera annulata) Photo by By Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13136524

What always interests me is the way that if you walk through a cloud of winter gnats, they disperse but then form up again as you haven’t done anything at all. They like slightly warmer spaces, so sometimes they may form a cloud above your head. It always reminds me a little of ‘Pig Pen’ in the Peanuts cartoon, who simply can’t keep himself clean. The winter gnats are after your body heat, though, rather than your odour.

These tiny flies will only live for four or five days after hatching. The females will lay their eggs on vegetation, which the larvae will feed on, before disappearing underground to emerge next year. What a brief life, when the days are short and the nights are long. The winter gnats will also provide a welcome snack for insect-eating birds, who are mightily deprived of protein at this time of year. A gathering of winter gnats is known as a ‘ghost’ according to Buglife. What a welcome sign of life they are!

A ‘ghost’ of winter gnats