134 



of Natural flutter jj ; 



render it necessary ; but, on the contrary, at 

 Mickleham I did not observe a single in- 

 stance of any superstructure being raised, 

 for, in a soil so light as in some places barely 

 to cover the strata of chalk, the ant is glad 

 to find a situation so suited to her purpose 

 as the under side of a large stone, for here 

 the necessary degree of moisture for the 

 development of her progeny is retained in 

 the earth. Now it will be obvious that the 

 difficulty of detecting the Claviger amongst 

 the accumulations of the ant-hill must be 

 very great, but on removing the stones you 

 are at once, as it were, admitted into the 

 channels of the nest, filled with eggs, larvae, 

 and pupae, and amongst these it is that Cla- 

 viger is found. The first question which 

 ! naturally arises is this : What is the nature 

 ! of the connexion between the two insects ? 

 | P. W. J. Miiller, in Germar's Magazin der 

 | Entomologie,' informs us that the ants alto- 

 i gether support the Clavigers for the sake of 

 a peculiar secretion which exudes from them, 

 1 and which the ants suck from the two flocks of 

 ' hair that terminate the external angles of 

 the elytra, that the ants occasionally caress 

 i the Clavigers, which then give out a fresh 

 ' supply of the fluid, that the Claviger is 

 I wholly dependent for support on the ants, and 

 I that they feed it with juices extracted from 

 flowers, &c. * * * I am inclined to the 

 opinion that the only purpose for which 

 these insects are retained by the ants, is for 

 the sake of the fluid which they extract 

 from them ; I feel convinced that there are 

 hundreds of nests without them : they are 

 most numerous during the early summer 

 months, whilst the lams are in the nests; 

 and I was at one time inclined, from that 

 circumstance, to think that the fluid ex- 

 tracted from them might serve to nurture 



particular sexes of ants, but the fact of their 

 not inhabiting every nest at once decides 

 the question." The species figured is the 

 Claviger lonyicornis, wliieh differs consider- 

 ably from the preceding, but has the same 

 general appearance. 



CLAVICORNES. The name given to a 

 family of Pentamerous beetles, whose an- 

 tennae end in a club-shaped enlargement : 

 they are partly terrestrial, and partly aqua- 

 tic. 



CLAY [MOTHS]. A name given by col- 

 lectors to Moths of the genus Grapluphara. 



CLEAR-WING [HAWK-MOTHS]. A 

 name given to the species of Sphingidai, be- 

 longing to the genus jEgcria. 



CLERUS : CLERID^E. A genus and 

 family of Coleopterous insects, of small ex- 

 tent ; generally handsomely variegated in 

 their colours, and seldom exceeding an inch 

 in length : the body is firm, long, and often 

 cylindric, with the head and thorax nar- 

 rower than the elytra ; and the antennas are 

 short, sometimes filiform and serrated. The 

 species of the genus Clerus are amongst the 

 largest of the family ; having the elytra ge- 

 nerally of a bright red colour, ornamented 



HIVE BEETLE, 

 (CLKR-OS [TRICHODES] AFIA.RIOS.) 



with purple spots. The perfect insects extract 

 the honey from flowers ; but their larvse, 

 which are of a bright red colour, are very 

 destructive to bees and wasps, in the nests of 

 which the females deposit their eggs during 

 the absence of those insects, upon whose 

 grubs the larviB of the Clerus prey ; they 

 begin in the cell where they were hatched, 

 and proceed from cell to cell, devouring each 

 inhabitant until they arrive at maturity. 



CLIO : CLIONID^E. A genus and family 

 of naked marine molluscs, belonging to the 

 order Ptcrvpoda. They are particularly dis- 

 tinguished by having a pair of fin-like organs, 

 or wings, consisting of an expansion of the 

 mantle on each side of the neck, and fur- 

 nished with muscular fibres a peculiarity 

 of structure by which they are enabled to 

 propel themselves rapidly through the water. 



So numerous are they in the Northern and 

 Southern oceans, that the water appears 

 literally alive with them ; they are called 

 whales' food, and the sea is sometimes so 

 glutted with the Clios, that the whales can 

 scarcely open their mouths without ingulph- 

 ing thousands of them. The Clio borealis 

 abounds in the Arctic seas, and the Clio 



