240 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. XVI 



and it has been stated by an observer, in confirma- 

 tion of this fact, that ''by a careful dissection of 

 the mouth, he could not discover either a tongue 

 or mandibles in the males; it may therefore become 

 a question, what does this sex live upon 1 he rather 

 suspects, on flowers; and it is remarkable that, in 

 outhouses and places where these insects abound, 

 the sexes are not often found together. He remem- 

 bered in the month of June to have seen the ma.es 

 of Culex accumulatus repeatedly, without observing 

 one female ; and last May he met with the males 

 of another species flying in a large swarm in the 

 afternoon, in Coombe Wood, in a dark shady hol- 

 low, and not one female was among them ; but, on 

 sitting down, a few came out of the grass, and lit 

 upon his hand." In like manner it has been stated, 

 that the males of a species of gnat hover in small 

 flights about the skirts of groves near rivulets. 



Upon these statements we may be allowed to ob- 

 serve, that we do not recollect, in the course of our 

 rambles, ever to have found a male gnat upon flow- 

 ers, and that the circumstances mentioned seem to 

 confirm our observations contained in the preceding 

 chapter upon the swarming of gnats. Moreover, 

 although Reaumur found that the female gnats and 

 Tabani would taste the sugary fluids which he 

 offered to them, it is to be borne in mind, that the 

 chief feeding-time of these insects is past, sii ce it 

 is only during the larva state.. It is thus that we 

 would account for another circumstance connected 

 with these and other bloodthirsty insects, such as 

 the bedbug, &c., namely, that in their native haunts 

 they are often found abounding to the greatest ex- 

 tent, although it is impossible for them ever to 

 taste blood ; this is indeed particularly the case 

 with the gnats, which swarm in damp situations, 

 "where the footstep of man ne'er trod." In like 

 manner the bedbug has been known to thrive and 

 multiply to a most intolerable degree in empty 



