CERATOPOGON CERCERIS. 



773 



house collections, but is of no value either as a fruit 

 or ornamental tree. 



CERATOPOGON (Meigen). A genus of in- 

 sects, belonging: to the order Dlptcra, section Xe- 

 moccra, and family Tipulidce, and being nearly allied 

 to Cecidomyia. These insects are very numerous, of 

 small size, with the antennas in both sexes nearly 

 tnoniliform, having the last five joints elongated, and 

 with a strong brush of hairs at the base in the males 

 only. The eyes are lunate, and the wings laid flat 

 upon the body when at rest, the nervures, of which 

 the number is very small, being longitudinal. These 

 insects are found upon hedges, brambles, flowers, 

 &c., especially in low moist and woody situations, 

 whence it is to be presumed, observes M. St. Far- 

 geau, that their early states are passed in the water, 

 although neither their larva?, nor the nature of their 

 transformations, had been observed. Latreille, in- 

 deed, affirms that they reside, in the larva state, in 

 vegetable galls. Whether the latter statement has 

 been made from direct observation or not, is not 

 mentioned ; but M. Guerin has more recently pub- 

 lished an account of these larvae in the second volume 

 of the Annals of the Entomological Society of 

 France, from which it may be inferred, bearing in 

 mind the diversity of habits existing in the kindred 

 genus Cecidomi/ia, that the species of Ceratopogon 

 are not less varied. M. Guerin found the larva? de- 

 scribed by him in considerable numbers under the 

 moist bark of decaying trees, where they appeared to 

 form a sort of society, and some of them were already 

 (25th August) in the pupa state. The larvae were 

 long and slender, of a white colour, composed of 

 twelve segments, each of which, with the exception 

 of the head, is furnished on the upper side with four 

 long hairs, each bearing at its extremity a small 

 globule perfectly spherical, opake, of a milky white 

 colour, and having the appearance of a small pearl, 

 the series of which, placed along the back of the 

 larvae, gives them a most singular appearance. The 

 pupa is shorter than the larva, thicker towards the 

 head, the extremity of the body remaining within the 

 exuvium of the larva. The perfect insect proved to 

 be a new species, to which this assiduous author 

 gave the name of Ceratopogon genicitlatus. He 

 likewise described, in the same Memoir, a second 

 new species, C, flavifrons, the pupa of which he had 

 found in the moist wounds of elm trees at Passy, near 

 Paris. When the perfect insect is ready to make its 

 escape, the body of the pupa is protruded half out of 

 the earthy matter in which it was placed. The 

 skin is then split, and the new-born fly creeps out, 

 trailing its old covering after it. 



There is considerable difference in the structure of 

 the different species. In some, forming the sub- 

 gonus Ciilicoides, the legs are slender, and not spined. 

 These species possess, in proportion to their size, and 

 in a surprising degree, the power of stinging the 

 naked skin of the hand, or other exposed part of the 

 body, as we can affirm from experience ; and M. 

 Macquart has captured one of the species in the act 

 of sucking a gnat much larger than itself, which it had 

 ed ; whilst others, as the sub-genera Prionomyia, 

 I'alpomyia, and Ceratopogon, have some of the thighs 

 very thick and spined. These are much less mis- 

 chievous than the former. 



CERATROPHRIS. A genuS of Batrachian 

 reptiles, of which the distinguishing characters are : 

 the head large, the skin all over granulated, and a 



membranous prominence, something in the shape of 

 a horn, upon each of the upper eyelids. They are 

 inhabitants of the warmer parts of America. 



CERBERA (Linnaeus). A genus of tropical 

 shrubs and trees, belonging to the fifth class of the 

 sexual system, and to the natural order Apocyneae. 

 This genus is described as possessing poisonous 

 qualities ; but several of the species are cultivated in 

 our stoves, as ornamental plants, where they flower 

 abundantly. They strike root readily from cuttings, 

 treated in the usual manner. 



CERBERUS. A sub-genus of serpents, belonging 

 to the genus Coluber, in which are comprehended all 

 the serpents, whether poisonous or not, which have 

 two rows of seal}' plates on the tail. This species 

 has the whole head covered with small scales, except 

 between and over the eyes, and it has frequently 

 single plates at the root of the tail, but not along the 

 whole of that member, as in the boa. See COLUBER. 



CERCERIS (Latreille). A genus of hymeno- 

 pterous insects, belonging to the section Aculeata, 

 sub-section Fossores, and family Crabronidce, (wood 

 and sand wasps,) and readily distinguished by the 

 form of the abdomen, the articulations of which are 

 narrowed at the extremity, giving this part of the 

 body a knotted appearance ; the second sub-marginal 

 cells of the upper wings is pedunculated, and the 

 antennae are inserted in the middle of the face. 

 These insects, of which the Sphex arenaria of Linnaeus 

 is an example, and of which we have about a dozen 

 British species, are very ferocious in their habits. Of 

 one of the species, Cerceris ornata, the Baron Walcke- 

 naer has published an interesting account in his 

 Memoir upon the Bees composing the genus Halictus. 

 Numbers of these insects make their nest in the 

 sand in the situations where the Halictus terebrator, 

 Walckenaer (Fulvocincttu, Kirby), have established 

 their colonies. For this purpose, the fore-legs of the 

 female cerceris, which alone undertakes the con- 

 struction and provisioning of the nest, are armed with 

 numerous strong spines, which are employed in loosen- 

 ing the sand, and sweeping the loose particles away. 

 They are thus occupied from the month of June to 

 the commencement of September, at which latter 

 period the Halictus has entirely disappeared. The 

 entrance to these burrows, when newly constructed, 

 is lined with an inner rampart of sand, well polished, 

 and agglutinated with a whitish mortar, which lining 

 is sometimes carried upwards above the surface of 

 the ground. The entrance itself is larger than the 

 insect, being adapted for the admission of the latter 

 when laden with its prey. These burrows are not 

 perpendicular, but curved somewhat in the shape of 

 an S, being about five inches deep. When this task 

 is completed, the deposition of the eggs, together 

 with a sufficient supply of food for the larva when 

 disclosed, is the next care of the parent fly ; and 

 now commences the murderous warfare with the 

 Ha/icti, which, in fact, are employed by the cerceris 

 for this purpose. It is only in fine hot weather, and 

 between eleven and four o'clock, that the parent 

 cerceris is occupied in the chace of the poor bees, 

 one of which no sooner makes its appearance near 

 the mouth of its own nest, on its return from a 

 wearisome flight, than the cerceris pounces upon it, 

 hawk-like, seizes it by the neck, dashes it to the 

 ground, throws it upon its back, and then introduces 

 its sting immediately beneath the head, leaving it 

 half dead and palpitating, in which state it is buried 



