12 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 



slight thickening now (5. Feb. 03) due to a puncture made 

 Nov. 8. 02. 



(2) A swelling arises as above detailed, but it is accompanied by a 

 large reddened and puffy area of inflammation. A clear vesicle 

 containing a yellowish lymph develops in the centre of the hard 

 swelling. There is more or less severe itching. If opened, the 

 vesicle drains lymph for three or four days and the inflammatory area 

 diminishes 'pari -passu. Cases have occurred, especially in women, 

 where there have been four or five simultaneous punctures, and the 

 patient has suffered so much malaise as to retire to bed with fever 

 ranging up to 101° F. 



(3) The hard swelling is slight or absent, but there is great and 

 extensive oedema. A case occurred in the practice of a friend of 

 mine in which there was a puncture on the man's liaud ; the whole 

 arm inflamed and was extremely painful, with oedematous swelling 

 extending up to the shoulder-joint. Our own cook had a puncture 

 this autumn on the forearm, and developed a regular attack of 

 " water in the elbow-joint," so that the arm became almost immov- 

 able. This year 1 caught specimens of tlie ? of this species as late 

 as January 13th in a summer-house with glass windows, as well as 

 in our own house. I saw no males after the second week in 

 November, 1902, and at that time I noticed, on a sunny day, in a 

 warm nook of our garden, numbers of this gnat — all ? 's — flying 

 about and settling on the stems of plants and inserting their pro- 

 boscides, apparently engaged in sucking. The two plants attacked 

 were periwinkle ( V. major) and young wallflowers. Most people at 

 Weston are well acquainted with this species owing to its speckled 

 wings, and it is usually to be met witli in autumn in the woods of 

 Worlebury Hill behind Weston on the north. Indeed, it is sometimes 

 spoken of as the " Wood Gnat." 



Further Observations on its Life-history. 



During the past year this gnat has been more than usually 

 abundant in my own neighbourhood (Wye), and like Anopheles 

 mactdvpcnnis it has not been found to bite man. On the other 

 hand, I have observed the females, just as Mr. Hatchett Jackson 

 records, feeding upon plants. Some hundreds hatched out of a water 

 barrel in my garden during August, commencing on the 17th and 

 going on until the 27th. They all hatched out between 8 and 

 11 o'clock in the morning. The first few days 9 's alone appeared, 

 then for two days nothing but $ 's and then $ 's again. Many of 



