In spring, you can see and hear it everywhere, the classic rites of the season: a turkey strutting, tail outspread; the lilting song of a yellow warbler; a peacock with its glorious fan of colors spread wide. Males dancing, singing, strutting, showing off. You’re probably familiar with these obvious ways to impress the opposite sex and find a significant other.
But in summer there’s a mating ritual going on that’s very easy to miss. We walk right past it, even through it, although it’s literally under our noses all summer long. It’s the nuptial dance of the tiny insects called gnats.
Unlike the peacock strutting in solitary splendor, the gnat fraternity all hangs out together. Often the party starts at dusk. The boys pick a spot in the air, above some landmark like a pebble or a stick, and start to dance. The insects hover up and down, back and forth, never bumping into each other, in movements as romantic and complicated as an Argentine tango.
If one gnat danced alone, it would be easy for a female gnat to miss the lone bobbing speck. But a thousand gnats all rumba-ing together form a shifting cloud that is noticeable even to humans. Apparently female gnats find the choreography irresistible. The female approaches, enters the dancing mob, and . . . well, let’s just look the other way.
What is a gnat, anyway? Hard to say. “Gnat” isn’t a precise scientific classification used by entomologists; it’s a general layman’s term for tiny flying insects, rather like the word “vegetable,” which embraces many species from carrot to rutabaga. Most references agree that gnats are a group of the Diptera, or flies. Like the common house flies, gnats have only two wings, as compared to most insects that have four. Some gnats can be a bit of a pain, like the almost-invisible no-see-ums or sandflies that deliver an itchy bite. Others are harmless to humans, unless they drive you insane as they persistently hover an inch in front of your face on a hot sweaty day.
But of course, once we consider their value beyond our human annoyances, we realize that gnats are essential to summer. A banquet of gnats feeds the birds that sing those sweet songs. Gnats pollinate the summer wildflowers that carpet the meadows.
Gnats have short lifespans: from egg to adult is typically only a few weeks. They spend most of their lives as little specks of larva, tiny worm-like creatures wriggling through the leaf litter and mud. For the adults, a few summer days is all the time they’ve got for their winged dancing. So if you see a swarm of gnats assembling in the dusk, resist the temptation to get out the Raid. Just enjoy the show.
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