GNATS, MIDGES, AND MOSQUITOES 223 



this task, and has seen in all these different creatures 

 but varieties for which three or four names at the out- 

 side will suffice. Our first business, therefore, must be, 

 as is usually the case in dealing with insects under their 

 popular names, to define our terms, and to say what 

 insects we include and what we exclude, and in what 

 sense we use the terms " gnats, midges, and mosquitoes." 

 Without in the least attempting accurately to distin- 

 guish species, it may suffice to say that, when we speak 

 of gnats and mosquitoes as household pests, we do not by 

 any means refer to all gnat-like creatures, nor even to 

 all which would be commonly called gnats, but only to 

 such as belong to one particular family, the Culicidce, 

 and which, by their blood-sucking propensities, trouble 

 mankind indoors, either in this country or elsewhere. 

 Nor shall we draw any definite line of distinction between 

 gnats and mosquitoes. It is often imagined that mos- 

 quitoes are creatures confined to warm climates, and have 

 nothing to represent them in this country ; but the fact 

 is that the difference between a gnat and a mosquito is 

 little more than one of name. To an entomologist they 

 are practically the same thing; both are members of 

 the same genus, Culex, and the difference is, at the out- 

 side, not more than that between closely allied species. 

 It is true that the virulence of the "bite" of these 

 creatures in tropical countries is much greater than it 

 is here; and, when one remembers the frightful effects 

 that are sometimes produced on the human body by 

 these little pests, and the strenuous efforts that are 

 made, and the elaborate precautions that are taken, 

 whether in the way of oily unguents, of curtains and 

 nets, or even of burying the body in the sand, to guard 

 against their attacks, it is no doubt disappointing to 

 discover that after all there is nothing so very remarkable 



