Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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At A Period When The Geography Of Animals And Of Plants Had Not Yet
Been Studied, The Analogous Species Of Different Climates Were Often
Confounded.
It was believed that the pines and ranunculuses, the
stags, the rats, and the tipulary insects of the north of Europe, were
to be found in Japan, on the ridge of the Andes, and at the Straits of
Magellan.
Justly celebrated naturalists have thought that the zancudo
of the torrid zone was the gnat of our marshes, become more vigorous,
more voracious, and more noxious, under the influence of a burning
climate. This is a very erroneous opinion. I carefully examined and
described upon the spot those zancudos, the stings of which are most
tormenting. In the rivers Magdalena and Guayaquil alone there are five
distinct species.
The culices of South America have generally the wings, corslet, and
legs of an azure colour, ringed and variegated with a mixture of spots
of metallic lustre. Here as in Europe, the males, which are
distinguished by their feathered antennae, are extremely rare; you are
seldom stung except by females. The preponderance of this sex explains
the immense increase of the species, each female laying several
hundred eggs. In going up one of the great rivers of America, it is
observed, that the appearance of a new species of culex denotes the
proximity of a new stream flowing in. I shall mention an instance of
this curious phenomenon. The Culex lineatus, which belongs to the Cano
Tamalamec, is only perceived in the valley of the Rio Grande de la
Magdalena, at a league north of the junction of the two rivers; it
goes up, but scarcely ever descends the Rio Grande.
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