CULEX, gnat, in natural history, a ge nus of insects of the order Diptera. Gene ric character : mouth consisting of seta ceous piercers within a flexible sheath ; antennae approximate, filiform. Gmelin enumerates fourteen species. The com mon gnat of Europe is produced from an aquatic larva of a very singular appear ance, which, when first hatched from the egg, measures about the tenth part of an inch. The eggs of the gnat are depo sited in close set groupes of three or four hundred together, and are very small : the whole group is placed on the sur face of the water, close to the leaf or stalk of some water-plant. It feeds on the minute vegetable and animal particles which it finds in plenty on stagnant wa ters, in which it resides, the head being armed with hooks to seize on aquatic in sects, and other kinds of food. When ar rived at its full growth, it casts its skin, and commences chrysalis. In this state, like the larva from which it proceeded, it is locomotive, springing about in the wa ter nearly in a similar manner. When
ready to give birth to the included gnat, which usually happens in the space of three or four days, it rises to the surface, and the animal quickly emerges from its confinement. Gnats, as is known to every body, are very troublesome in all coun tries; but in Lapland, during their short summer, the air is absolutely filled with such swarming myriads, that the poor inhabitants can scarcely venture out, with out first anointing their hands and faces with a composition of tar and cream, which prevents their attacks. This cir cumstance is not without its advantages, as the legions of larvz,which fill the lakes of Lapland, form a delicious and tempting repast to innumerable multitudes of aqua tic birds, and thus contribute to the sup port of the very people which they so dreadfully torment. The mosquito, of the West Indies and America, is a distinct species from the common European gnat.