[166] Travels, &c. i. 126.
[167] See Curtis' Brit. Ent. t. 122.
[168] It has been generally supposed by naturalists, that the Mosquitos of America belong to the Linnean genus Culex; but the celebrated traveller Humboldt asserts that the term Mosquito, signifying a little fly, is applied there to a Simulium, Latr. (Simulia, Meig.), and that the Culices, which are equally numerous and annoying, are called Zancudoes, which means long legs. The former, he says, are what the French call Moustiques, and the latter Maringouins. Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 93.
[169] Plin. Hist. Nat. l. xi. c. 28. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. i. c. 5.
[170] Pliny was aware of this double office of the proboscis of a gnat, and has well described it. "Telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio? Atque ut in capaci, cum cerni non possit exilitas, ita reciproca geminavit arte, ut fodiendo acuminatum pariter sorbendoque fistulosum esset." Hist. Nat. l. xi. c. 2.
[171] Humboldt has described several South American species. Personal Narrative, v. 97. note *. Engl. Tr.
[172] Germar's Magazin der Entomologie, i. 137.
[173] Philos. Trans. 1767, 111-13. I once witnessed a similar appearance at Maidstone in Kent.
[174] Weld's Travels, 8vo. edit. 205. Yet Mouffet affirms the same: "Morsu crudeles et venenati, triplices caligas, imo ocreas, item perforantes." 81.
[175] Acerbi's Travels, ii. 5. 34-5. 51. Linn. Flor. Lapp. 380-1. Lach. Lapp. ii. 108. De Geer, vi. 303-4.