94 



Genus LXVII. CULEX. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Antenna setaceous ; plumose in the male, hairy 

 in the female. Mouth consisting of setace- 

 ous piercers within a flexible sheath. Palpi 

 two, filiform, quadriarticulate, very long and 

 hairy in the male, short and simple in the 

 female. 



General Observations, 

 The most troublesome species of this genus, 

 the common Gnat, is well known to every one. 

 Its approach is announced by the humming 

 noise with which it troubles the silence of a 

 summer-night; and its arrival by the sharp and 

 venomous bite it inflicts upon our skin. Like 

 many of the insect tribe, it enjoys successively 

 those two kinds of life, which appear to be so 

 diametrically opposite to each other. It is born 

 in the water, but finishes its existence in the 

 air. In the spring and summer, and even as 

 soon as the ice is melted, the marshes, the 

 ponds, and all the stagnant waters, exhibit the 



