BRITISH BLOODSUCKERS 235 



the neighbourhood of the London docks ; and this 

 supposed importation of venomous foreign insects 

 is usually set down to the arrival of some steamer 

 from Bombay or New Orleans. The papers might 

 almost as well chronicle the " arrival " of the cock- 

 roach or of the common house-fly. There are 

 always mosquitoes in England ; and they bite worse 

 in very hot weather. Occasionally, no doubt, 

 some stray Mediterranean or American gnat, rather 

 hungrier than usual, does cross over in water in 

 the larval form and effect a lodgment in London 

 for a week or two ; but only a skilled entomologist 

 could distinguish him from a native, after careful 

 examination. Let it be granted then, as Euclid 

 says, that there is no essential difference between 

 a gnat and a mosquito, and let us admit that the 

 same name is applied in both cases to a large 

 variety of distinct but closely related species. 

 After which preliminary clearing of the ground, 

 we will proceed quietly to the detailed description 

 of one such typical bloodsucker. 



In justice to India, however, I ought perhaps to 

 add that the particular mosquito chosen for illus- 

 tration by Mr. Enock is not itself a native Briton, 

 but an inhabitant of India. It is thus only British 

 in the wider sense of being a denizen of her 

 Majesty's dominions, on which the sun never sets, 

 and the buzz of the mosquito never ceases. On 

 the other hand, it differs so slightly from the 

 commonest English gnat that nobody but a trained 

 entomologist could ever detect the difference ; and 

 even he could only discover it in the adult insect 



