Insects. 2237 



Callimorpha miniata. July, on heath. 



Miana arcuosa. July, at sugar. 



Harpagus albistrigella. July, on water grasses. 



Cybosia mesomella. July, flying. 



Chersotis porph/rea. July, at sugar. 



Nola monachalis and strigulalis. July, by beating. 



Ilythia sociella. July, at sugar. . 



Ilythia roborella. July, by beating. 



Clediobia albistrigalis. July, at sugar. 



Acidalia inornata. July, flying. 



Hipparchus papilionarius. July, flying. — J. B. Ellman ; Battel, August, 1848. 



Remarks on the Stinging of Gnats. — Baron Humboldt, in his ' Personal Narrative,' 

 p. 114, observes, with regard to a species of gnat called in South America the ' zanendo,' 

 that " if left to suck to satiety undisturbed, no swelling takes place, and no pain is 

 left behind." He also says, " that on presenting quietly the back of the hand to the 

 Culex cyanopterus, I observed that the pain, very violent in the beginning, diminishes 

 in proportion as the insect continues to suck ; and ceases altogether when it voluntarily 

 flies away.'' These passages are quoted by Mr. Jenyns, in his * Observations on Na- 

 tural History,' with the remark that he had never noticed anything like it in the case 

 of our English Culices. I think i" have, as the following fact will show. Some years 

 ago, when sitting in conversation with a friend, a gnat — or gnat-like insect if not a 

 gnat — settled upon my left hand, close to where the bones from the fore-finger and 

 thumb unite ; and where — in my own left hand, at least, if not in others — the pulsa- 

 tions of the blood can be at all times distinctly seen. As soon as the insect had 

 alighted, and almost, indeed, while alighting, it introduced its proboscis or sucker into 

 the skin, just where the pulsations were most visible. My friend being, like myself, 

 a lover of Natural History, begged me to let it stay — which I very willingly did. The 

 insect thus undisturbed remained sucking till it was satiated, and till its abdomen had 

 become quite red with the blood it had imbibed ; after which it flew away. But nei- 

 ther then nor during the operation did I experience the least pain ; nor did any 

 swelling follow ; nor was any sign left in the way of discoloration or perceptible punc- 

 ture to show that such an insect had been at work. That it was a gnat I have no 

 doubt in my own mind; inasmuch as, so far as I could judge, it was precisely like 

 many others which I have so often bred, when a boy, from the singular comma-like 

 pupae so abundant in stagnant waters. If so, there appear to me to be only two ways 

 of accounting for the entire absence of pain. One is, by supposing that the insect in 

 this case was a male, and that the female alone has the power of inflicting a sting : 

 this is somewhat countenanced by an observation Mr. Jenyns has made himself, that 

 " the gnats which bite appear to him to be almost all females ; " — a fact, he says, also 

 noticed by Humboldt with regard to the Culices of South America : moreover, it is 

 in strict analogy with what we know of other insects, — the bees, for instance, where 

 the queen bee, or perfect female, and neuters, or imperfect females, have the power of 

 stinging, whereas the drones or male bees are without it. Or if this theory is untena- 

 ble, I have another. Possibly there are some constitutions so framed as to be un- 

 stingable, at least by gnats ; and mine may be one of them. Otherwise I know not 

 how to account for the fact, that though I have frequently been where such insects 

 abounded, and where many other persons have been stung, I myself have always 

 escaped. I used to attribute this either to my being very unsavoury, or to some 



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