polverine

1. (uncountable) Glassmaker's ashes; a kind of potash or pearlash, brought from the Levant and Syria, used in the manufacture of fine glass.uncountable

2. (countable) A tiny biting insect found in South America.Examples: "Mosquitoes and polverines, little midges so small as to be scarcely visible, rose in a cloud from the water and settled on our hands and faces."; "The polverines, however, were so small and numerous that even though we massacred fifty with a slap it seemed to make no difference to the hazy black cloud which hung around our heads."; "But all were more tolerable than those polverines."countable