128 



BUTTEKFLIES AND MOTHS. 



plants above baskets, or above anything that will 

 catch the falling creatures, be they caterpillars or 

 anything else, and thus at a small sum they are 

 collected and destroyed. 



There are not many kinds of hutterflij caterpillars 

 which are hurtful to crops in England ; but amongst 

 the hosts of different kinds of moth caterpillars that 

 cause great loss, about the very largest of all, which 

 is that of the Death's Head Moth, is best got rid of by 

 hand-picking. This sometimes does much harm to 



Fig. 101.— Eyed Hawk Moth. 



Potatoes by feeding on the leafage. The caterpillar is 

 as much as four or five inches long, and as thick as 

 a finger. It is yellowish, with slanting blue or 

 blackish and white stripes on the side, and, like most 

 of the caterpillars of this family of Hawk or Sphinx 

 Moths, has a kind of horn-like growth, like a short 

 curved and pointed tail. The richly-coloured brownish 

 Moth is the largest of the British kinds ; it is known 

 by its back being marked with a figure like a skull, 

 whence its common name of Death's Head Moth. 



The caterpillar usually hides by day, and feeds in 

 the evening or at night ; therefore, when great harm 

 is found to be going on (either in this case or others 

 like it) from an unseeen enemy, it is well for some 

 trustworthy person to watch at dusk or dawn for what 



