64 CLIDEMIA C 



are usually planted in light loam, mixed with two- 

 thirds moor earth, and are very suitable shrubs for 

 the flower garden, and are increased by seeds or 

 layers. C. arborea is too tender to bear the open air 

 of this country, and is usually treated as a greenhouse 

 or conservatory plant. The other species, from the 

 same island (Madeira), require similar treatment, and 

 mav all be propagated by cuttings. 



CLIDEMIA (D. Don). A genus of tropical 

 shrubs, separated from the genus Melastoma, to which 

 they are nearly related, though not so fine flowering 

 plants as some others of that fine natural order. The 

 clidernias are remarkable for hairiness over their 

 leaves and stems. 



CLIFFORTIA (Linnseus). A genus of shrubs 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, some of which have 

 been long cultivated in British collections. They are 

 Dicecious, and belong to the natural order Rosacece. 

 They are cultivated more for the variety of foliage 

 they give to the collection than for their flowers, 

 which are not attractive. Young shoots strike root 

 readily under the ordinary management. 



CLIO (Lamarck). A naked molluscous animal, 

 of which only three species are named. The charac- 

 ters of this animal are not sufficiently well known to 



be described with certainty ; it belongs, however, to 

 the family of Gymnosomata. The species here figured 

 is the Clio bnrealis. 



CLISIOCAMPA (Curtis). A genus of lepidop- 

 terous insects, belonging to the family BombycidcB, 

 distinguished by its robust thick-set bodvi short but 

 powerful wings, which are rather acute, and its short 

 curved antennae; the palpi are of very small size, 

 and the spiral tongue is entirely wanting. These 

 insects are known to collectors by the name of Lackey 

 Moths, a name which they have gained from the 

 gaudy stripes of various colours, with which the 

 caterpillars are ornamented. The perfect insects are 

 of moderate size, seldom exceeding two inches in 

 expanse. " The larvae of C. neustria" observes Mr. 

 Haworth, " are one of the greatest pests our fruit 

 trees labour under. They are sometimes quite defo- 

 liated by these voracious caterpillars, and covered 

 over with their noisome webs. The female moth, 

 when she deposits her eggs in autumn, agglutinates 

 them in the neatest manner imaginable, all in close 

 and symmetrical contact, round a twig of about one 

 year's growth. These, hatching a little after the 

 foliation of the tree in spring, do not separate, but 

 live in one society, and form themselves one common 

 web, which they enlarge from time to time, as they 

 find necessary to accommodate their increasing sizes, 

 communicating at length to the almost defoliated 

 tree, a very sickly and disagreeable appearance. The 

 best way of destroying them, and all other tree 

 feeding caterpillars, is to shake the branches violently 

 either with the hand or a pole with a hook to it ; 



L I S I O C A M P A 



this brings them quickly to the ground, where they 

 are easily destroyed. Poultry, if admitted, will pick 

 them up with avidity." Lepidoptera Britannica, p. 

 129. This insect is of a reddish-ochre colour, having 

 a darker band across the middle of the anterior 

 wings, margined on each side with a paler colour. 

 It is very abundant, appearing in July and August. 

 In certain seasons, however, from some unknown 

 cause, it is much more rarely to be observed. It 

 likewise attacks other trees. Thus Mr. Jenyns says 

 of it, " The pest of our hedges, which in some seasons 

 are entirely stripped of their leaves by the larvae, and 

 laid as bare as in the depth of winter." The oak, 

 sweetbriar, sloe and hazel, are also subject to its 

 attacks. The precise manner in which the eggs are 

 so symmetrically deposited by the parent moth, has 

 not been observed, but the form of the eggs them- 

 selves are admirably adapted for their spiral position, 

 being in the form of a funnel-shaped wine-glass with- 

 out a stand, so that when they are placed together 

 in an arched form, they fit as precisely as the arch 

 stones of a bridge, and the cement with which they 

 are covered is so hard, that we have repeatedly 

 slipped them off the branch without breaking the 

 coil. We have also noticed that, although the out- 

 side of the eggs is of a dark colour, occasioned by 

 exposure to the atmosphere, smoke, &c., yet the 

 partition between each egg is beautifully iridescent. 



It may also be mentioned, that as this cement is 

 neither soluble in water, " nor in any other liquor, " 

 says Swammerdam, "which I have tried," they are 

 well defended, in their exposed situations, against the 

 wintry blasts and rains. 



The curious motions of these caterpillars have 

 attracted considerable attention amongst the obser- 

 vers of nature. Bonnet, who noticed a nest of 

 caterpillars, evidently of the lackey moths, observes, 

 " I remarked that the sound of my voice appeared to 

 incommode them, for when I spoke they briskly 

 agitated, with repeated jerks, the fore part of the 

 body." He is disposed, nevertheless, to suppose thu 

 it was not by any power of hearing, but by the deli- 

 cacy of their touch, that the sound of the voice was 

 communicated to them. On the other hand, the 

 author of Insect Miscellanies has suggested that this 

 jerking motion was for the purpose of producing a 

 rent in the skin near the head "as it was more 

 remarkable just before their moulting than at any 

 other time. This also, as it happens, was the very 

 period when Bonnet made his observations, as he 

 expressly says, ' some of them had undergone, and 

 others were about to undergo, their first moult.'" 

 Mr. Stephens, however, seems to refer their jerkings 

 to atmospheric causes. "In changeable weather, I 

 have observed," says he " that all the individuals 

 which happen to be resting on the outside of the 

 nest, simultaneously and repeatedly elevate the an- 

 terior part of their body." For our own parts, we 

 feel inclined to refer these motions to another causo ; 

 it will be seen that it is the larvae on the outside of 

 the nest which thus jerk themselves about ; we would 

 therefore suggest that it is for the purpose of defend- 

 ing themselves from the attacks of, and driving away 

 any wandering Ichneumon fly, that they thus keep 

 themselves in constant motion. 



The other British species, Bombyx caslrensis, is 

 much more rare than the preceding, which it nearly 

 resembles. It is figured by Mr. Curtis in his British 

 Entomology, plate 229. 



