104 VARIETIES. 



practice of every insect to die by the pin. We may be 

 inflicting a minor degree of suffering — though I think this 

 extremely doubtful, and conceive that it would be almost as 

 easy to persuade me that because the vegetable when cut, often 

 pours out its juices and dies, that it also is conscious of suffering. 



A. H. Davis. 



3. Bites of Insects. — During the early part of November, 

 a gnat alighted on one of my fingers, and coolly elevating its 

 hinder pair of legs, very gently insinuated its set of lancets 

 into my skin. I allowed the fragile phlebotomist to exercise her 

 skill for a few seconds, but finding the process not particularly 

 agreeable, I broke the whole set of lancets by a gentle pressure. 

 I anticipated, from past experience, that the venom would 

 produce a considerable inflammation, but no signs followed, 

 and I concluded I had put a stop to her operations before the 

 poison entered. Not the slightest degree of irritation followed 

 for twenty-two hours, when a slight itching of the finger began 

 at the precise point where the puncture was made ; it increased 

 considerably, and on the next morning I found the usual 

 indication of a gnat bite, a small but conspicuous swelling, 

 which continued to annoy me for some days. I was not 

 before aware that so long a period elapsed between the bite 

 and its effects. 



Connected with this, I may mention a fact which occurred 

 to me some years since ; a specimen of Stomoxys irritans 

 alighted on the fleshy part of my hand, between the fore-finger 

 and thumb, and instantly pierced the skin ; the first plunge of 

 the lancets gave me some pain, but I was curious to watch the 

 process ; I took out my glass and endured the annoyance, 

 watching the blood-thirsty wretch fill up each segment of its 

 previously thin body. I waited and watched till it had gorged 

 so plentifully as to let fall a drop of pure blood from the anal 

 extremity ; when not knowing but, like Munchausen's horse, 

 it might continue to drink, merely making a canal of itself, I 

 punished its trespass by summarily putting it to death. 



A. H. Davis. 



4. Chlorops circnmdata. — The name of this insect was 

 inserted by mistake in a list of described T>iptera, new to 

 Britain, in Vol. II. p. 439 of the Magazine.^ — Ed. 



