118 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



From Humboldt also we learn that " between the 

 litttle harbour of Higucrote and the mouth of the Rio 

 Unare the wretched inhabitants are accustomed to stretch 

 themselves on the ground, and pass the night buried in 

 the sand three or four inches deep, leaving out the head 

 only, which they cover with a handkerchief." This illus- 

 trious traveller has given an account in detail of these 

 insect plagues, by which it appears that amongst them 

 there are diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal species, or 

 genera : the Mosquitos or Simulia flying in the day ; the 

 Temporaneros, probably a kind of Culex^ flying during 

 twilight ; and the Zancudos or Culices in the night. So 

 that there is no rest for the inhabitants from their tor- 

 ment day or night, except for a short interval between 

 the retreat of one species and the attack of another. We 

 learn from this author that the sting or bite of the Siniu- 

 lium is as bad as that of the Stomoxi/s before noticed^. 



It is not therefore incredible that Sapor, king of 

 Persia, as is related, should have been compelled to raise 

 the siege of Nisibis by a plague of gnats, which attack- 

 ing his elephants and beasts of burthen, so caused the 

 rout of his army, whatever we may think of the miracle 

 to which it was attributed^; nor that the inhabitants of 

 various cities, as Mouifet has collected from different 

 authors'^, should, by an extraordinary multiplication of 

 this plague, have been compelled to desert them ; or 



ccived from him, observes, speaking of his residence at the Havana; 

 " Tlie disagreeables: are ants, scorpions, niygales, and nios(juitos. The 

 latter were quite a pest on my first arrival within the tropics ; but 

 now I mind them about as much as I did gnats in England." 



^ Humboldt's Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 87-. Most writers by 

 the term mosquitos mean gnats ; and for them it is here chiefly em- 

 ployed, but may be regarded as including both plagues. 



" Theodorit. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. ,*^0. 



*" MoufFet, 85. Amoreux, 119. 



