304 THE SPHINGINA, OR HAWK MOTHS. 



still more strikingly from the typical members of 

 the tribe^ — namely, the Burnet Moths, of which the 

 commonest are the Trefoil (Zygcena Trifolii), and the 

 Six-spotted {Z. Filipendul(s). These moths, which 

 fly about in the daytime, are distinguished by their 

 deep metallic green or blue fore- wings, marked with 

 several roundish bright red spots, and their red hinder 

 wings, broadly margined with the ground colour of 

 the anterior wings. Their caterpillars, which, like 

 those of the Sesice, are destitute of the caudal horn, 

 feed upon the leaves of herbaceous plants, especially 

 the different kinds of trefoil ; instead of descending to 

 the ground when about to undergo their transforma- 

 tions, they spin a silken cocoon, pointed at both ends, 

 attached to the stems of their food-plants, and in this 

 miniature hammock the pupa awaits its final change. 

 There is one other species of this group to which I 

 must refer, as it is remarkable, not oidy for being the 

 largest of the European Lepidoptera, but also from 

 some other peculiarities which render it an object of 

 particular interest. This is the Death's-head Moth 

 [Acherontia Atropos), which sometimes measures up- 

 wards of five inches across the expanded wings. Its 

 caterpillar, which lives principally upon the potato 

 plant, frequently attains a length of four inches and 

 a half, and the thickness of a man's finger ; its gene- 

 ral colour is yellow, with bright blue oblique bands 

 upon the abdominal segments, and it is furnished 

 with a caudal horn, like the caterpillars of the other 

 true Hawk Moths, but with the extremity turned 

 upwards. When full grown, the caterpillar buries 

 itself in the earth, and there undergoes its change to 

 the pupa state, and the large chrysalides of these 

 moths are frequently turned up in digging potato 



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