DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 95 



well between Hymenoptera and Diptera, when he says the former have 

 their sting in the tail, and the latter in the mouth ; and that to the one 

 this weapon is given as the instrument of vengeance, and to the other of 

 avidity.^ But the instrument of avidity in the genus of which I am 

 speaking, is even more terrible than that of vengeance in most insects 

 that are armed with it : like the latter also, as appears from the conse- 

 quent inflammation and tumor, it instils into its wound a poison ; the princi- 

 pal use of which, however, is to render the blood more fluid and fitter for 

 suction. This weapon, which is more complex than the sting of hymen- 

 opterous insects, consisting of five pieces besides the exterior sheath, some 

 of which seem simply lancets, while others are barbed like the spicula of 

 a bee's sting, is at once calculated for piercing the flesh and forming a 

 siphon adapted to imbibe the blood.^ There are several species of this 

 genus whose bite is severe, but none is to be compared to the common 

 gnat (^Culex pipiens L.), if, as has been generally affirmed, it be synony- 

 mous with the mosquito (though, in all probability, several species are con- 

 founded under both names) ; and to this, the most insatiable of blood- 

 suckers, I shall principally direct your attention.^ 



In this country they are justly regarded as no trifling evil ; for they fol- 

 low us to all our haunts, intrude into our most secret retirements, assail us 

 in the city and in the country, in our houses and in our fields, in the sun 

 and in the shade: nay they pursue us to our pillows, and either keep us 

 awake by the ceaseless hum of their rapid wings (which, according to the 

 Baron C. de Latour, are vibrated 3000 times per minute'*), and their in- 

 cessant endeavors to fix themselves upon our face, or some uncovered part 

 of our body ; or, if in spite of them we fall asleep, awaken us by the acute 

 pain which attends the insertion of their oral stings ; attacking with most 

 avidity the softer sex, and trying their temper by disfiguring their beauty. 

 But although with us they are usually rather teasing than injurious, yet 

 upon some occasions they have approached nearer to the character of a 

 plague, and emulated with success the mosquitos of other climates. Thus, 

 we are told that in the year 1736 they were so numerous, that vast columns 

 of them were seen to rise in the air from Salisbury cathedral, which at a 

 distance resembled columns of smoke, and occasioned many people to 

 think that the cathedral was on fire. A similar occurrence, in like manner 

 giving rise to an alarm of the church being on fire, took place in July 

 1812 at Sagan in Silesia.^ In the following year at Norwich, in May, at 

 about six o'clock in the evening, the inhabitants of that city were alarmed 

 by the appearance of smoke issuing from the upper window of the spire 

 of the cathedral, for which at the time no satisfactory account could be 

 given, but which was most probably produced by the same cause. And 



Westwood, F. L. S." 2 vols. Lond. 1839—1841. (ii. 510.), a work invaluable to the ento- 

 mologist both for its systematic details and vast mass of original and collected facts relative 

 to the affinities, habits, and economy of insects. 



> Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 28. Aristot. Hist. Animal 1. i. c. 5. 



2 Pliny was aware of this double office of the proboscis of a gnat, and has well described 

 it. " Telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio? Atque ut in capaci, cum 

 cerni non possit exilitas, ita reciproca geminavil arte, uifodiendo acuminatum pariter 

 sorhendoque fistulosum esset." Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 2. 



^ Humboldt has described several South American species. Personal Narrative, v. 97 

 note. * Engl. Tr. 



* Westwood, 3Iod. Class, of Ins. ii. 509. 



* Germar's Magazin de Entomologie, i. 137. 



