June, 19irj 



American Hee Journal 



be called robbing among bumblebees. 



I hope through your courtesy it may 

 be possible to collect a number of 

 specimens from various parts of the 

 country or world should that be possi- 

 ble. I assure you that your inlerest in 

 this investigation will be greatly appre- 

 ciated. B. N. G.\TEs. 



Departmentof Entomology, Amherst, 



Mass. 



-^ 



Death's-Head Moth. — In our "Notes 

 from Abroad " for April, the readers 

 saw a description and a woodcut of 

 this insect. We did not then know 

 that a kind European friend, M, Pierre 

 Odier, of Celigny, near Geneva, had 

 gone to the trouble of securing for us 

 some photographs of this wonderful 

 insect, which photos were then on the 

 way from Switzerland to us. 



We have also since found among our 

 voluminous correspondence from Mr. 

 Langstroth, a letter concerning this in- 

 sect and the braces which the bees 

 build against it and other intruders. 

 We give a facsimile of his letter. We 

 also add a quotation from the South 

 African Bee Journal on the same sub- 

 ject. 



THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH (Photographed from life) 



especially the ' koper kapel ' of the 

 colonists. 



"It is to these snakes alone that one 

 should attribute all of the accidents of 

 which the Boers still like to accuse the 

 harmless Atropos sphinx (moth), 

 death's head, that they call the groot 



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7. 





" When the nest (bee-nest) is in a 

 hollow tree, with only a narrow open- 

 ing, one should avoid thrusting the 

 arm into it to remove the honey, if one 

 does not wish to run the risk of a sud- 

 den death or, at the very least, of ter- 

 rible suffering— different species of 

 venomous snakes hide there readily, 



honingbije. This sphinx, more abun- 

 dant in southern Africa than in I'^u- 

 rope, loves honey and dares to go even 

 on the honey-combs ; but most fre- 

 quently one finds it resting on the bark 

 (of the hollow tree), just a few inches 

 from the opening; all those that I ob- 

 tained were collected in such positions. 



" The Boers have as much horror of 

 the moth as of a snake. They imagine 

 that its proboscis is a poisonous sting, 

 and great was the astonishment of 

 some of them when they saw me touch- 

 ing one of the moths without fear and 

 putting it into my mouth to prove its 

 harmlessness. They were so convinced 

 of its dangerous nature that they 

 thought I wanted to put an end to my 

 life. They were impressed to such an 

 extent, since childhood, with these 

 superstitions that, in spite of all my 

 e'lorts, I was unable to persuade a sin- 

 gle one of them to do what I had 

 done." 



The Death's-mkad Moth from Life 



Weighting the Bee-Veil.— In clipping 

 queens this spring. 1 forgot to put my 

 glasses on and never noticed it until I 

 had a hive open. They were in a case 

 in my vest pocket, and I managed to 

 get them on without removing the veil, 

 dropping the case down inside the veil. 



I had a happy surprise, there being 

 no more wrinkling or blowing about of 

 the veil. In looking down or looking 

 up, the veil is always straight, but the 



