4 GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER I 



])rinciples of the classification can only be gained i'loni 

 European and American works. 



Hitherto I have treated the terms Culicidce, Mosquitoes, 

 and gnats as synonymous, and the present work is confined 

 to the consideration of the Culicidm alone, but it must not 

 be supposed that every insect that bites and is annoying to 

 man necessarily belongs to this family. As far as we at 

 present are aware, however, it is the Culicidce alone that 

 are concerned in the transmission of malaria, and as this 

 handbook is mainly intended for the use of those who may 

 be working on this problem, it does not appear worth 

 while to include the SimulidcB and other obnoxious insects 

 that attack man in the same way. 



The word Mosquito is a diminutive of the Spanish and 

 Portuguese " mosco " fly. A variety of insects of the Cidi- 

 cidcc and other families are known under this name in 

 various localities, the only common characteristic being the 

 power of annoying man by their bites. It is not uncom- 

 mon to see in the press, notices of the occurrence of 

 " Mosquitoes" in England. When investigated by compe- 

 tent entomologists, the insects always turn out to be one of 

 the common indigenous English gnats, generally C. pipiens, 

 L. ; and in point of fact this species has as good a claim as 

 any other to the name, and is quite capable of inflicting 

 as much annoyance as any other, the tropical species sur- 

 passing our English gnat rather in numbers and persist- 

 ence than in their individual capability of annoyance. 

 Something of the same sort may be noticed in the case 

 of the common fly, which even where fairly common, rarely 

 exhibits in England the same dire determination to sit on 

 one's nose that it does in India and other hot climates, and 

 which it will do, even in England, when the weather is 

 sufficiently hot. In short, the question whether gnats will 

 earn for themselves the dreaded title of Mosquito or not is 

 rather a matter of temperature than locahty, or in other 

 words, it is only in hot weather that gnats show any strong 

 tendency to attack human beings in place of being content 

 with their more usual vegetable food. At any rate, no one 

 species is in any way entitled to the name. 



