G N AT. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Antennae filiform. 
Mouth formed by a flexible sheath, enclosing setae, or 
bristles, pointed like stings. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Culex pipiens. C. cinereus, abdomine annulis fuscis octo. 
Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. 1 . p. 2 S 86 . 
Ash-coloured,, with eight brown rings on the ab- 
domen. 
/3. Musquitoes. Kalm. It. 2. p. 268. 
Common Gnat. Reaum. Ins. 4. pi. 43, 44. Geoff. Ins. 2 . p. 57g. 
pl. 19 . f. 4. Roes. Ins . 3. pi. 15. Shaw Gen. 
Zool. 6. p. 388. pl. IO 9 . 
The gnat, like most other insects, passes through 
three different states, two of which are spent in the 
water, the other in the air. The larvae are those 
little insects which are so common in the month 
of May, in almost every stagnant water, and which 
may be frequently seen in our water-butts with 
their heads downwards and their tails just above 
the surface : in this situation they continue quiet 
till any thing alarms them ; when they immediately 
