MIDGES? GNATS? OR MOSQUITOES? 
Written and illustrated by T. A. GERALD STRICKLAND, F.E.S. 
sé OW these midges do bite!” If you are a polite person, you answer, “ Yes, 
don’t they?” but, as a matter of fact, with one exception, 2.e., the genus 
Ceratopogon, midges do not bite and are absolutely harmless. It is the female (usually) 
gnat or mosquito, for the names apply to the same insect, that so beautifully pierces 
our skin with her stylets and sucks our blood. In the warm. evenings of late spring 
and early summer clouds of male midges rise and fall and play in the still aur, 
amusing themselves with innocent terpsichorean movements; and as, to the casual 
‘observer, the little creatures are somewhat like gnats, we abuse them and call them 
bloodsuckers! It is worth while to catch one, and also a gnat proper, and compare the 
two with the aid of a pocket lens. Of course, there are internal differences in the 
two insects, but the external are striking enough. 
In the first place, it will be found that the midge’s proboscis is extremely short 
and generally minute, whilst that of the gnat or mosquito, which forms a case for the 
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MOSQUITO (Culex sp.). 
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