12 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 
slight thickening now (5. Jb'eb. 03) due to a puncture made 
Nov. 8. 02. 
(2) A swelling arises as above detailed, but it is accompanied by a 
large reddened and puffy area of inflammation. A clear vesicle 
containing a yellowish lymph develops in the centre of the hard 
swelling. There is more or less severe itching. If opened, the 
vesicle drains lymph for three or four days and the inflammatory area 
diminishes pari passu. Cases have occurred, especially in women, 
where there have been four or five simultaneous punctures, and the 
patient has suffered so much malaise as to retire to bed with fever 
ranging up to 101° F. 
(3) The hard swelling is slight or absent, but there is great and 
extensive oedema. A case occurred in the practice of a friend of 
mine in which there was a puncture on the man’s hand ; the whole 
arm inflamed and was extremely painful, with cedematous swelling 
extending up to the shoulder-joint. Our own cook had a puncture 
this autumn on the forearm, and developed a regular attack of 
“ water in the elbow-joint,” so that the arm became almost immov- 
able. This year I caught specimens of the ? of this species as late 
as January 13th in a summer-house with glass windows, as well as 
in our own house. I saw no males after the second week in 
November, 1902, and at that time I noticed, on a sunny day, in a 
warm nook of our garden, numbers of this gnat — all ? ’s — flying 
about and settling on the stems of plants and inserting their pro- 
boscides, apparently engaged in sucking. The two plants attacked 
were periwinkle ( V. major) and young wallflowers. Most people at 
Weston are well acquainted with this species owing to its speckled 
wings, and it is usually to be met with in autumn in the woods of 
Worlebury Hill behind Weston on the north. Indeed, it is sometimes 
spoken of as the “ Wood Gnat.” 
Further Observations on its Life-history. 
During the past year this gnat has been more than usually 
abundant in my own neighbourhood (Wye), and like Anopheles 
maculipcnnis it has not been found to bite man. On the other 
hand, I have observed the females, just as Mr. Hatchett Jackson 
records, feeding upon plants. Some hundreds hatched out of a water 
barrel in my garden during August, commencing on the 17th and 
going on until the 27th. They all hatched out between 8 and 
11 o’clock in the morning. The first few days ? ’s alone appeared, 
then for two days nothing but d ’s and then ? ’s again. Many of 
