Metriocnemus knabi

Metriocnemus knabi, the pitcher plant midge, is an inquiline midge found only in the phytotelma of the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea. In this microcommunity of bacteria, rotifers, protozoa, and other dipteran larva like Wyeomyia smithii, M. knabi specializes by feeding mostly on the carcasses of drowned insects captured by the plant that collect at the bottom of the pitcher.^[2][3] It is found in the eastern United States, as far north as Maine and south to North Carolina.^[4]

Metriocnemus knabi
Metriocnemus knabi larvae[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Chironomidae
Genus:	Metriocnemus
Species:	M. knabi
Binomial name
Metriocnemus knabi Coquillett, 1904