THE DEATH'S HEAD MOTH 231 



exception, the largest insect in Europe. Extremely 

 broad and thick of body, with a large head, and a short 

 thick proboscis or tongue, it bears on the back of the 

 thorax a conspicuous, well-defined, yellowish blotch, con- 

 taining two round black spots and some dark grey 

 clouds, not inaptly representing the face of a human 

 skull, or Death's Head. The fore wings are thick and 

 strong, and of a blackish grey, mottled with yellow and 

 red ; the hind ones of a rich brown yellow barred with 

 black, and with these wings striking aberrations, when 

 they do take place, seem to be usually connected. 



Similar qualities distinguish the larva. It also is 

 large and handsome, solid and thick, and about five 

 inches long, and, when at rest, in the habit of raising 

 its anterior segments and drawing them back, in assum- 

 ing the curious sphinx like posture, so characteristic of 

 the group. Its colour is green or yellow, sprinkled with 

 numerous small black or purplish dots, and with seven 

 broad oblique lateral stripes of a dull blue or violet, 

 extending to the back, where they meet in an angle ; 

 and the twelfth seo^ment carries the horn, which is 

 rough, and strangely bent downwards, and then recurved 

 again at the tip. But this is a most variable larva, for 

 specimens are occasionally found of different shades of 

 brown, with the stripes much less distinct, or even white, 

 and sometimes the first three or four segments have 

 broad whitish stripes and patches, and instead of the 



