Entomology. 393 
August 1818, it presented the phenomenon so rare to this plant, 
of being in flower. It began to expand between seven and eight 
o’clock at night ; it was entirely open at eleven, but at four 
o'clock next morning it again collapsed, and was quite closed up 
at five o’clock. 
In the Mémoires du Museum d’ Histoire Naturelle, (vol. ii. 
p- 190) M. Desfontaines has given an interesting account of a 
species of this plant indigenous to Mexico, which flourished in the 
course of July 1817 in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The 
short-lived flowers of this plant are inodorous, of a blood-red 
colour, and of the most sparkling brilliancy. 
SPHYNX ATROPOS. 
The great dryness of the summer of 1818 has been the cause 
of an unusual multiplication of insects, and of attracting towards . 
the north some species which seemed confined by nature to south- 
ern latitudes. Among this number the Journals of France take 
particular notice of a species of Lepidoptera, which has made its 
appearance in that country, known by the name of the Sphynx 
Death’s Head(Sphynx Atropos L.), so called on account of three 
black spots in the centre of a yellow spot of its corslet, which 
form a pretty exact resemblance of a Death’s head. It has proved 
extremely destructive to that valuable branch of rural industry— 
the Apiary. In the months of August and September last, nu- 
merous hives, especially in the department of Lower Charente, 
were wholly destroyed by its ravages. The animal has been ac- 
cused by the people of not only attacking the bees and devouring 
them, but of sucking the honey with the utmost avidity. The - 
fact is, however, that the Sphynx Atropos has no organ fit for 
devouring bees. Its mouth consists of a beak not very long, 
with which it sucks or may suck the honey from the combs ; but 
ifit does kill the bees, it can only be by the action of its wings. 
It appears pretty clear, however, that the bees when supposed to 
be devoured have only fled out of the way of their enemy. It 
has been observed, that as soon as the low funereal sound, which 
the Sphynx Alropos produces by sticking its antenne against its 
beak, is heard in the neighbourhood of a hive, the bees instantly 
take the alarm; in a few moments all is disorder and confusion ; 
and in many instances, which have no doubt given rise to the 
vulgar idea of their being devoured, the colony have been seen 
immediately to abandon their habitation in a body, never to re- 
turn. The honey, not the bees, is the object of prey ; and it is, 
in all probability, only when the bees attempt an unavailing de- 
fence of their treasures, or are too tardy in their flight, that any . 
of them are even killed. The Sphynx Alropos is large and.vo- ) 
racious; but it lives chiefly at the expense of the potatoe, the » 
garden 
