280 CULICID.E— GNATS. 



extremely moistened, and softened with the waterf I have 

 walk'd out upon a dry walk (which I made my self) in an 

 evening, and there came about me an army of such Flyes, 

 as I had never seen before, nor after ; and they rose, as I 

 conceived, out of the earth : They were as big bodied as 

 Bees, but far larger wings, harm they did us none, but only 

 lighted on us; their colour between ash-colour and purple."^ 



If Gnats swarm in the summer in globular masses, it is 

 supposed to prognosticate a storm. Moufet says : " If 

 Gnats near sunset do play up and down in open air, they 

 presage heat; if in the shade, warm and milde showers; 

 but if they altogether sting those that passe by them, then 

 expect cold weather and very much rain. ... If any one 

 would finde water either in a hill or valley, let him observe 

 (saith Paxanus in Geoponika) the sun rising, and where 

 the Gnats whirle round in form of an obelisk, underneath 

 there is water to be found. Yea, if Apomasaris deceive us 

 not, dreams of Gnats do foretell news of war or a disease, 

 and that so much the more dangerous as it shall be appre- 

 hended to approach the more principall parts of the body."^ 



"On the 14th of December, 1830, at Oremburg, snow fell 

 accompanied by a multitude of small black Gnats, whose 

 motions were similar to those of a flea." This singular 

 phenomenon was described at the session of the Academy 

 of St. Petersburg, held February 21st, 1831.' 



The pertinacity of the Culicidee frequently renders them 

 a most formidable pest. Humboldt tells us "that between 

 the little harbor of Higuerote and the mouth of the Rio 

 Unare, the wretched inhabitants are accustomed to stretch 

 themselves on the ground, and pass the night buried in the 

 sand three or four inches deep, exposing only the head, 

 which they cover with a handkerchief."* As another proof 

 of the terrible state to which man is sometimes reduced by 

 Mosquitoes, Captain Stedman relates that in one of his 



1 Hist, of Barbados, p. 63. 



2 Theatr. Ins., p. 86. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 956. 

 ' Silliman's Journal, xxii. 375. 



* Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 87. Humboldt has given a detailed 

 account of these insect plagues, by which it appears that among 

 them there are diurnal and crepuscular, as well as nocturnal spe- 

 cies, or genera: the Mosquitoes, signifying little flies (Simulia), Hy- 

 ing in the day; the Temporaneros, flying during twilight; and the 

 Zancudos, meaning long-legs [Culices), in the night. 



