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[Image Number] 31 [Image (Click to Enlarge)] I was amazed to see several of these male Midges oozing out a brown liquid from the tip of their abdomens each evening around 9:30. I don't know if they were getting prepared to mate or what! I'm sure the other guests at the hotel wondered why I kept f... [Image Viewed] 819 [Caption] 
I was amazed to see several of these male Midges oozing out a brown liquid from the tip of their abdomens each evening around 9:30. I don't know if they were getting prepared to mate or what! I'm sure the other guests at the hotel wondered why I kept flashing my camera as I tried to get photos like this. ***Update*** I finally got an answer to this mystery via Dr. Frans Janssens, an entomologist in Belgium I contacted through Bugguide.net! Here is an excerpt from his email. It confirmed what I had suspected. "The large everted forward directed body part is the aedeagus, the male 'external'reproductive organ. The phallus, so to speak. In Diptera the aedeagus can become quite large. It is an everted inflatable copulation structure. In the picture the aedeagus is everted in the correct position for copulation. I have no idea what the brown liquid is about and why the midge dips its abdomen in it."
Insects IV - True Flies, Dragonflies and insects with "fly" in their name
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