204 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



neighbourhood, some of them are tolerably sure to 

 come to the flowers, and to feed in their own peculiar 

 manner, by poising themselves in mid-air on their 

 rapidly quivering wings, and thrusting their sucking- 

 tubes or trunks into the recesses of the flower. As these 

 Moths will not fly by day, and as the partial darkness 

 prevents their movements from being seen, it is better 

 to look out for the well-known Humming-bird Hawk- 

 Moth, which does fly by day, and is a very bold insect, 

 allowing itself to be approached quite closely. 



OUR first example of the Hawk-Moths is the 

 magnificent DEATH'S HEAD MOTH (Acherontia 

 Atropos), an insect seldom seen except by practical 

 entomologists. 



This splendid creature ranks among the very 

 largest of our insects, inasmuch as the spread of its 

 wings is very considerable, and the body is thick and 

 heavily made. The upper surface of the fore-wings 

 is warm-brown, with bands and mottlings of a darker 

 hue, and a little white spot on the disc. The hind 

 wings are yellow, with two black bands. The thorax 

 is densely covered with a soft velvet-like down, feeling 

 to the touch very much like the fur of the mole. The 

 colour is a very deep black-brown, and in the middle 

 is a yellow mark which bears the most startling resem- 

 blance to a skull and the two collar bones. The hair 

 is so long that the shape of the skull can be altered 

 by pressure. The body is yellow, with a longitudinal 

 black stripe along the middle and six black transverse 

 bands, each marking the edge of a segment Beneath,, 

 the body and wings are yellow, with an indistinct dark 



