234 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



them members of the genus Culex. The one point 

 of similarity between the whole lot lies in the fact 

 that they all suck blood ; whenever a blood-sucking 

 culex is lighted upon in England it is called a 

 gnat ; while whenever one is found in any other 

 part of Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, we say 

 it is a mosquito. That is just a piece of the well- 

 known British arrogance ; they will not admit that 

 there are such venomous beasts as mosquitoes in 

 England, and therefore, when found, they call 

 them by another name, and fancy they have got 

 rid of them. As a matter of fact, mosquitoes of 

 one sort or another occur in most countries, if not 

 in all the world ; they are most numerous, it is 

 true, in the tropics and in warm districts gene- 

 rally ; but they also abound in Canada, Siberia, 

 Russia, and Lapland. Even in the Arctic regions, 

 they come out in swarms during the short summer ; 

 and wherever ponds or stagnant waters abound in 

 Finland or Alaska, they bite quite as successfully 

 and industriously while they last as in Ceylon or 

 Jamaica. At least a hundred and fifty kinds are 

 " known to science," and of these, no fewer than 

 thirty-five occur in Europe. There are nine in 

 Britain. ' Most of the European species bite quite 

 hard enough to be popularly ranked as mosquitoes ; 

 the remainder are called by the general and in- 

 definite name of flies a vague term which covers 

 as large an acreage of evil as charity. 



In hot summers, you will often read in the 

 papers a loud complaint that " mosquitoes have 

 made their appearance in England," most often in 



