I04 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



in the genus Macroglossa, and one of them is well known during 

 hot summers, as the Humming Bird Moth or sphinx. They are 

 to be seen in the bright sunshine flying from plant to plant 

 with great velocity, and sucking nectar from the flowers without 

 resting upon the petals. Like the humming birds, they make a 

 buzzing noise, and hover over their favourite flowers, and feed 

 without crumpling a leaf. They suck up the honey through their 



MOTH OF Ch(Zroca>!ipa tterti. 



very long trunks with great rapidity. The moth is of a brown 

 colour, and there are black rays on the front wings, and the 

 hinder pair are of a yellow fawn tint. The caterpillar lives upon 

 the bedstraw, Galimn violiigo. 



The Death's Head Moth is a well-known sphinx, on account 

 of its fine size, as well as from there being some markings on the 

 thorax, which, with the aid of a little imagination, can be believed 

 to represent a human skull. Unlike the humming-bird sphinx, 

 the AcJierontia atropos has a short and thick trunk; its antennae. 



