The Culicidæ, say Kirby and Spence, like other conquerors who have been the torment of the human race, have attained to fame, and have given their names to bays, towns, and even to considerable territories; and instance Mosquito Bay in St. Christopher’s; Mosquito, a town in the Island of Cuba; and the Mosquito Shore of Central America.[954]
Democritus says: “Horse-hair, stretched through the door, and through the middle of the house, destroys Gnats.”[955]
St. Macarius, Alban Butler says, was a confectioner of Alexandria, who, in the flower of his age, spent upwards of sixty years in the deserts in labor, penance, and contemplation. “Our Saint,” continues Butler, “happened one day to inadvertently kill a Gnat that was biting him in his cell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of suffering that mortification, he hastened from the cell for the marshes of Scete, which abound with great flies, whose stings pierce even wild boars. There he continued six months, exposed to those ravaging insects; and to such a degree was his whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings, that when he returned he was only to be known by his voice.”[956]
In the old English translation of the Bible, the observation of our Saviour to the Pharisees, “Ye blind guides, which strain at a Gnat, and swallow a camel,” is rendered
“which strain out a Gnat,” and Bishop Pearce observes that this is conformable to the sense of the passage. An allusion is made to the custom which prevailed in Oriental countries of passing their wine and other liquors through a strainer, that no Gnats or flies might get into the cup. In the Fragments to Calmet, we are informed that there is a modern Arabic proverb to this effect, “He swallowed an elephant, but was strangled by a fly.”[957]
Tipulidæ—Crane-flies.
The larvæ of a species of Agaric-Gnat (Mycetophila) live in society, and emigrate in files in a very soldier-like manner. First goes one, next follow two, then three, etc., so as to exhibit a singular serpentine appearance. The common people of Germany call this file heerwurm, and, it is said, view them with great dread, regarding them as ominous of war.[958]
Maupertuis, in describing his ascent to Mount Pulinga, in Lapland, says: “They had to fell a whole wood of large trees, and the Flies (most probably Tipulidæ) attack’d ’em with that fury, that the very soldiers, tho’ harden’d to the greatest fatigues, were obliged to rap up their faces, or cover them with tar. These insects poison’d their victuals, for no sooner was a dish serv’d, but it was quite covered with them.”[959] Maupertuis, in another place, says: “These Flies make Lapland less tolerable in the summer than the cold does in the winter.”[960] The severity with which the Tipulidæ torment the Laplanders is attested also by Acerby,[961] Linnæus,[962] De Geer,[963] and Reaumur.[964]
Muscidæ—Flies.
Among the instances recorded of Flies appearing in immense numbers, the following are the most remarkable: