222 THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH. 



conceive. Truly may we say, " who can find out the 

 Almighty to perfection 1 " 



Our extensive cultivation of the potato furnishes us 

 annually with several specimens of that fine animal the 

 death's-head moth*(acherontia atropos), and in some 

 years I have had as many as eight brought me in the 

 larva or chrysalis state. Their changes are very un 

 certain. I have had the larva change to a chrysalis in 

 July, and produce the moth in October ; but generally 

 the aurelia remains unchanged till the ensuing summer. 

 The larvae or caterpillars, " strange ungainly beasts," as 

 some of our peasantry call them, excite constant atten- 

 tion when seen, by their extraordinary size and un- 

 common mien, with horns and tail, being not unusually 

 five inches in length, and as thick as a finger. This 

 creature was formerly considered as one of our rarest 

 insects, and doubtful if truly indigenous ; but for the 

 last twenty years, from the profuse cultivation of the 

 potato, is become not very uncommon in divers places. 

 Many insects are now certainly found in England, which 

 former collectors, indefatigable as th?y were, did not 

 know that we possessed ; while others again have been 

 lost to us moderns. Some probably might be introduced 

 with the numerous exotic plants recently imported, or 

 this particular food may have tended to favor the increase 

 of rarely existent natives; but how such a creature as 

 this could have been brought with any plant is quite 

 beyond comprehension. We may import continental 

 varieties of potatoes, but the death's-head moth we have 

 never observed to have any connexion with the tuber 

 itself, or inclination for it. As certain soils will pro- 

 duce plants by exposure to the sun's rays, or by aid of 

 peculiar manures, when no pre-existent root or germ 

 could rationally be supposed to exist ; so will peculiar 

 and long intervening seasons give birth to insects from 

 causes not to be divined. We may perhaps conclude, 

 that some concurrence produced this sphinx, and then 

 its favorite food, the potato plant, nourished it, to the 

 augmentation of its species. 



Superstition has been particularly active in suggesting 

 causes of alarm from the insect world ; and where man 



* See note EE, appendix. 



