CH. XVI.] DIPTEROUS INSECTS. 235 



away my pen in consequence of their irritating bite, 

 which has obliged me every moment to raise my 

 hand to my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, in constant 

 succession." 



In considering this insect to be a simulium and 

 not a stomoxys (as another author has conjectured), 

 we are guided by its very minute size. A small 

 species, from the account of its tormenting propen- 

 sities, is known in North America by the name of 

 "the blackfly," &c., and we feel ourselves war- 

 ranted in retaining the name of moscheto for the va- 

 rious exotic species of gnats. 



Even the common domestic fly, although unpro- 

 vided with the powerful apparatus possessed by the 

 gnat for piercing the flesh, is in some parts of the 

 world as tormenting a pest even as the moschetoes. 

 It is seldom in England that we suffer in any great 

 degree from their numbers or pertinacity, but in 

 more southern and hotter climates these insects 

 become perfect nuisances, when, to use the words 

 of Mr. Spence, " they literally almost fill the apart- 

 ments. Every traveller in the south of Europe 

 during the hot months will confirm the assertion of 

 Arthur Young, that they are the first torments in 

 Spain, Italy, and the olive districts of France. It is 

 not that they bite, sting, or hurt, but they buzz, 

 tease, and worry. Your mouth, eyes, ears, and 

 nose are full of them ; they swarm on every eatable, 

 and if they are not incessantly driven away by a 

 person who has nothing else to do, to eat a meal is 

 impossible ; and it is evident, from various incidental 

 notices in the journals of travellers, that they are to 

 the full as great a plague in the hot climates of other 

 portions of the globe. To omit other instances 

 which it would be tedious to cite, Mr. Stewart, in 

 his recent valuable work on North America, speaks 

 on three several occasions of the annoyance which 

 he suffered from flies, which he seems to have found 

 a worse torment than the moscheto." In the me- 



