452 
c u 
dentated at their.extremity like the barb of an arrow, 
ohers fharp-edged like razors. 'I'liefe fpicula, intro¬ 
duced into the veins, act as pump-fuckers, into which 
the blood afeends by reafon of the fmallnefs of the ca¬ 
pillary tubes. The infect injects a final 1 quantity of li¬ 
quor into the wound, by -which the blood becomes more 
fluid, and is feen under the microfcope palling through 
thole fpicula. The animal fwellsj grows red, and does 
not quit its hold till it has gorged itfelf. The liquor it 
has injected caufes by its fermenting that difagreeable 
itching which we experience, and which may be removed 
by volatile alkali, or by walhing it with cold water. 
Gnats perform their copulation in the air. The female 
depofitsher eggs on the water, by the help of her moveable 
hinder-part and her legs, placing them one by the fide 
of another in the form of a little boat. This veflel, com- 
pofed of two or three hundred eggs, fwims on the water 
for two or three days, after which they are hatched. If 
a dorm arifes, the boats are funk. Every month there 
is a frelh progeny of thefe infeCts. Were they they not 
devoured by (wallows, and by feveral carnivorous in- 
leCts, the air would be darkened by them.” 
Gnats in this country, however trcublefome they may 
be, do not make us feel their fling fo feverely as the cu¬ 
lcx pipiens, or mufqueto fly, exhibited in the .engraving. 
J n warm countries, both in the day-time and at night, they 
come into the houfes, and when people are gone to bed, 
they begin their difagreeable humming, approach always 
nearer to the bed, and at laft fuck up fo much blood that 
-they can hardly fly away. Their bite, like that of bugs, 
caufes blifters in people of a delicate complexion. When 
the weather has been cool for fome days, the mufquetoes 
difappear; but when it changes again, and efpecially af¬ 
ter rain, they gather frequently in fuch quantities about 
the houfes, that their number is aftonifhing. In fultry 
evenings they accompany the cattle in great (warms, from 
the woods to town ; and, when they are driven before 
the houfes, the gnats fly in wherever they can. In the 
greatefl heat of fummer, they are fo numerous, in fome 
places, that the air feems to be quite full of them, efpe¬ 
cially near fwamps and stagnate waters, fuch as the river 
; Morris in New Jerfey. The inhabitants therefore make 
a fire before their houfes to expel thefe difagreeable vi- 
fitors by the fmoke ; and at night have nets of gauze 
hung round their beds.. 
The culcx replans, or creeping gnat, of Linnaeus, is the 
fame with the gnat of the Bannat, firft deferibed by Brun- 
nich, and which had then been obferved only in the Ban¬ 
nat of Temefwar in Europe. It is at length alcortained by 
Pallas, after much inveftigation, to be alfo the fame in- 
ieCt as the Ruffian mofehara, or flinging gnat. His ac¬ 
count, very lately publiffied, is as follows: “ My doubts 
on this fubjeCt induced me to apply to baron von Born, 
to whofe information I had often been before indebted ; 
and by his means I obtained a fmall collection of real 
Columbach gnats, among which I diftinguifhed, on the 
firft view, the Ruffian mofehara, of a confiderable fize, 
and even an infect which I had fo often wifhed to pro¬ 
cure when collecting plants and infeCts in the Altai 
mountains, and on the Volga. They are fmall flies, as 
thick but much fhorter than the common gnats, and 
which, according to their charaCteriftic marks and form, 
have a greater refemblance to the bibiones of Geoffroy 
than to.gnats. (They had been hitherto called by Pal¬ 
las bibio fanguinarius .) Their bread, which is ftrong, pro¬ 
jects in a round form ; the head is flat, and at the top 
ends in a (harp oblique edge, has at the Tides oblong eyes, 
and below tapers to a probolcis, which ends in two fliarp 
points, not unlike the fling of the gnat; the feelers are 
of a brownilh yellow colour, thick and fliarp pointed, 
placed near each other on the forehead; the legs are 
much fhorter than thqfe of the gnat ; the thighs and 
part next the joints of the legs are all white, and only 
blackifh towards the ends ; on fome the thighs towards 
she body were whitifh 5 the extremity of the body, which 
L E X. 
appears very dry and contracted, is furrounded with rings 
of brown, but the breaft appears black, (haded with grey; 
the wings, which,are pretty large and broad, appear 
whitifh, with their veins, and lie over each other. Such 
I found the Columbach gnat, and I have feen the Sibe¬ 
rian mofehara, or that common in the neighbourhood of 
the Volga, perfectly fimilar, only that it was fomewhat 
fmallcr, and had not fo broad white rings on the legs. I 
entertain no doubt, therefore, that they are both of the 
fame fpecies. I am alfo convinced that the culcx rep. 
tans of Linnaeus is nothing elfe than the fame infect which 
is found in the northern countries, fomewhat fmaller and 
not in fuch abundance. Linnaeus found great multitudes 
of the latter in the mountainous diftricts of Lapland, 
whereas in Sweden they are more uncommon. Accord¬ 
ing to his obfervations, they attack people principally 
towards fun-fet, crawl over their whole bodies, even in¬ 
to the mouth, nofe, and eyes, and cannot be driven away 
like other gnats, by (baking or blowing. If his deferip- 
tion in the Fauna Suecica be compared with ours, it will 
be.found very little different. Thefe troublefome flies 
are found here and there in the northern forefts of Ruf¬ 
fin, but fingly, and for the mod part they run about 
among the hair of the cattle. But on the Volga, below 
Kafan, where that river begins to flow between woody 
mountains, and approaches a warmer diftriCt, particu¬ 
larly from the neighbourhood of Simbirfk to Saratof.and 
Kamyfchenka, they are met with from the end of May 
to the beginning of June in fuch aftonifhing multitudes, 
in low bufhy places, and the woody hills fheltered from 
the windi that they feem to fill the atmofphere, like 
hail, falling blindly and with violence againft the face, 
which is affeCted as if land were thrown againft it ; they 
fly into the eyes, nofe, and mouth, adhere pertinacioufly 
to the (kin, and with their blunt trunks pierce it often 
in fuch a manner as to occafion pain, fo that a bloody 
punCture remains, though without itching. Fifhermen, 
hunters, and all. thofe who, by their employments, are 
expofed to the open air, or who travel, furnifh them- 
fclves about the above period with a large net-cap, foaked 
in birch oil, becaufe it Iras been obferved that the mof¬ 
ehara:, however blindly they rufh againft every thing, 
never venture to fly againft thofe open nets which have 
been foaked in the above ftrong-fmelling oil. Without 
thefe means it would often be impoffible to open the 
eyes. When the infeCt has an opportunity of fattening 
itfelf on the fie in unperceived, and of fucking the blood, 
it fills its belly till it appears like a blown-up bladder, 
and cannot be removed but by killing it. As people 
cannot open the- mouth without feveral of them getting 
into it at once, it often happens that they bite or fqueeze 
them between the teeth, in fpitting them out, and one 
then feels, without wifhing it, that their entrails have a 
fweet melleous tafte. At the end of June they alinoft 
all difappear, and are not again feen till Auguft; but at 
that period they are far lefs abundant. Thefe flies are 
equally numerous in the Ural mountains, but they are 
(till more fo in the neighbourhood of the woody moun¬ 
tains of the fouthern part of Siberia beyond the lake 
Baikal. In the month of June, people are tormented 
with hefe vermin, even on the mountains, till they reach 
the cold fummits, where there are no woods. In the 
latter end of fummer, however, they are not to be feen 
in thofe diftricts. Travelling from Jakufk to Ochozk, 
they are to be again found in immenfe multitudes as foon 
as one has paffed the Aldaan, and perhaps they are to be 
found alfo in North America. 
It is commonly reported, in the Siberian and Ural 
mountains, that thefe fmall infects, with the afliftance of 
the gad-flies, which abound about the fame period, tor¬ 
ment horfes, and other cattle, in fuch a manner as to oc¬ 
cafion their death when they run about in the forefts, 
and have no opportunity of efcaping to the open coun¬ 
try, or to a fire, the fmoke of which would drive them 
away. Inftances of this, however, are not fo frequeqt 
