8 



CHARICLEA CHEESE-HOPPER. 



CHARICLEA (Stephens). A beautiful genus 

 of lepidopterous insects belonging to the family JVbc- 

 tuidte, and having for its type the rare peach blossom 

 moth of British collectors, Noctua Delphinii of Lin- 

 naeus. The anterior legs are armed at the extremity 

 of the shanks with two shining horny spines ; the 

 wings are very gaily ornamented with purple markings, 

 and are about an inch and a quarter in expanse. 



CHARLOCK is the English name of the Sinapu 

 arvensis of Linnseus. It is a tetradynarnous annual, 

 and belongs to the natural order Cruciferee. No 

 weed, except the thistle perhaps, gives the English 

 farmer more trouble, nor causes more injury to his 

 crops, than this. It springs up with, and ripens seed 

 before the corn ; consequently much seed is scattered 

 on the ground by the sithe and sickle in gathering 

 the crop. Although an annual, it is not easily extir- 

 pated, as the seed will lie uninjured in the soil for 

 years ; and when the farmer has lost sight of it for 

 several consecutive seasons, it will at last come up so 

 abundantly, that the crop of corn will be choked by 

 the plant, and covered with the yellow flowers of the 

 charlock. 



CHARLWOODIA (Sweet). A genus of orna- 

 mental trees, natives of New Holland and New 

 Zealand, named in honour of G. Charlvvood, F.L.S., 

 an intelligent English botanist. Linnaean class and 

 order Hexandria Monogynia; natural order AsphodelecE. 

 Generic character : calyx bell-shaped, regularly six- 

 cleft, withering ; stamens inserted in the throat of 

 the corolla ; filaments awl-shaped, smooth ; anthers 

 versatile, cleft at the base ; style filiform ; stigma 

 three-lobed ; berry globular, three-celled ; cells full 

 of seeds. There are four species described ; two are 

 common in our collections, "one with pale purple, 

 another with blue flowers ; they should be kept in a 

 very warm greenhouse, as they are tender, or in a 

 cool part of a stove, and may be increased by cuttings 

 of the young side shoots. The cuttings must not be 

 deprived of their leaves, but put into pots filled with 

 an equal mixture of light loam, moor earth, and sand ; 

 which compost is also the best soil to grow them in." 

 Sweet. 



CHAR^EAS (Stephens). A genus of lepido- 



[>terous insects belonging to the family Noctuidce, 

 laving the wings more or less notched ; the palpi 

 are very short, and the antenna; of the males more or 

 less comb-shaped. The genus includes five British 

 species which vary considerably in structure, amongst 

 which the Pkalcena bombyx graminis, Linnaeus, or the 

 antler moth, is placed. This insect is exceedingly 

 destructive in pastures, feeding upon grass ; and it is 

 recorded that in Sweden, towards the middle of the 

 last century, its ravages were so extensive that whole 

 meadows appeared white and dry, as though a fire 

 had passed over them. In England also, at various 

 but uncertain periods, different parts of the country, 

 especially the northern counties, have suffered from 

 its ravages, " spots of a mile square were totally 

 covered by them, and the grass devoured to the 

 root." Mr. Wailes has recently published some 

 interesting observations upon this insect in the Ento- 

 mological Magazine, noticed upon Skiddaw : at least 

 fifty acres of which were so completely devastated 

 and the line of devastation so clearly marked, that 

 even from the town of Keswick the progress of the 

 larvae down the mountain could be distinctly noted. 

 Vast quantities of rooks flocked to the spot to feed 

 upon the delicious repast afforded by these caterpil- 



lars ; but so greatly was the vegetation destroyed, 

 that even several years afterwards the extent of their 

 ravages was distinctly visible. " Of course." adds 

 Mr. Wailes, " the qnality of the newly-grown herbage 

 was materially improved, thus affording another in- 

 stance of indirect advantages derived irom insects ;'' 

 and Mr. Haworth in like manner observes, " Perhaps 

 this apparently destructive scourge of the Swedish 

 pastures (though happily not of our English ones) is 

 of more use in the great economy of nature than we 

 are aware of, by preventing the almost total suffoca- 

 tion and consequent destruction of the flowering 

 plants, in giving them an occasional season in which 

 they may recover themselves to become the food, the 

 necessary food perhaps, of many insects, &c., which 

 would perish whenever that became extinct." 



The caterpillar is of a brown colour with yellowish 

 streaks on the sides and back. In the month of June 

 it changes to a shining brown chrysalis, and the moth 

 appears in about a fortnight, being of a brown colour, 

 and having a long pale line along the upper wings 

 united to two large pale spots in front, and branching 

 behind into three oblique teeth. We have, however, 

 met with it later in the year, having captured it at 

 the middle of August, both upon the Wrekin in Shrop- 

 shire and Snowdon. It seems indeed to frequent 

 mountainous districts, and contrary to the general 

 habits of the family, we noticed it flying with great 

 velocity in the middle of the day. We mention this 

 because Mr. Wailes has stated some curious facts to 

 which it is opposed. He noticed these insects one 

 morning, about eight o'clock, flying in swarms over 

 old pastures ; on returning to the spot, a couple oi' 

 hours afterwards, with his fly-net, not one was to be 

 seen. The next morning, however, he was early on 

 the spot, but then also not a solitary moth was to be 

 seen ; at half past seven he was about to return, 

 " when suddenly the whole field, as far as the eye 

 could reach, was once more the scene of their gam- 

 bols, the eye became bewildered with their motions, 

 they were lost in the mazes of their evolutions. 

 Sudden, however, as their appearance had been, their 

 disappearance was equally so, as with one general 

 consent at about half past eight they again settled, and 

 their flight for the morning being over, scarce a soli- 

 tary specimen was any where to be seen. The moths 

 flew about three or four inches from the ground, and 

 apparently very seldom alighted, but threaded their 

 way most dexterously amongst the long culms of the 

 grasses." 



CHAULIODUS. A genus of soft finned fishes 

 with abdominal fins, belonging to the pike family. 

 There is only one known species, an inhabitant of 

 the waters of America, it is of a bright green colour, 

 and about a foot and a half long, the muzzle is very 

 short, but the gape extends as far as the eyes, and 

 the teeth are strong and powerful, especially two 

 crooked ones in each jaw ; its habits, and, indeed, its 

 characters are very imperfectly known. 



CHEESE-HOPPER or CHEESE MITE. A 

 small white fleshy grub of an elongated form, ofim 

 found in decayed cheese, and which is the larva of a 

 pretty two-winged fly known by the systematic name 

 of Piophila (Tyr&phaga, K.) casei. Of this insect 

 the immortal Swammerdam has left us an interesting 

 account, and although to unthinking persons it may 

 appear to be a frivolous subject of inquiry, we find 

 this illustrious philosopher affirming " that the limbs 

 and other parts of this worm are so uncommon and 



