Ɛpsilon

From Stephen Price   30 August [1881]1

39 Chapel Place | Brompton

Aug 30

Sir

I venture to ask you if you think it possible or probable that the English gnat2 may develope in exceptionally hot weather into the mosquito?

I was once plagued frightfully with mosquitos in America and I saw at once that after all a mosquito is but a gnat and seeing that the Press attempts to account for the late apperance of mosquitos in this country by stating that they must have been imported &c I thought I would take the liberty of asking you this question.

I have the honour to be Sir | A humble admirer | Stephen Price

CD note:

*My father is sorry that he cannot answer your question.—3 [transposed from end of note]

The gnat family [‘a’ inter and del] a very difficult one & not well-known— [‘do not believe’ del] There [‘T’ over ‘t’] is no evidence, of the introduction of any new species into this country & my Father—thinks it probable this *& other similar [‘types’ del] English species of gnat has recently increased in [interl above del ‘gnat have increased in’] numbers—

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Stephen Price, 1 September [1881].
2
Gnat is a general term for any of several families of small flying insect in the suborder Nematocera; mosquitoes belong to the family Culicidae in the suborder Nematocera, with several species native to England. Not all mosquitoes bite humans; in England, the common non-biting mosquito species Culex pipiens is often referred to as a gnat.
3
The note is in CD’s hand; it is for his reply to Price of 1 September [1881].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13306,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13306