Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Just a made-up word by me, I do that from time to time. It does seem to be a word though and something to do with gnats. Punkies come from punky, a word me and a couple of friends many eons ago, used to refer to a punk we always used to see in the same pub. As we didn't know his name or ever spoke to him, we just used to call him punky.