40 DEATH'S HEAD SPHINX. 



organ emits an acute stridulous sound. May not 

 this, which inspires the vulgar with sinister ideas, be 

 also the dread of bees ? May not its resemblance to 

 that emitted by the queen in her captivity, which has 

 the faculty of suspending the vigilance of the workers, 

 explain the disorder observed in their hive on the 

 approach of the Sphinx '? But this is only a conjecture, 

 founded on the analogy of sounds, to which I attach 

 no importance. Meantime, were any piercing notes 

 observed to proceed from the Sphinx during its 

 assaults, and that the bees then yielded without 

 resistance, my conjecture would acquire some weight.* 



" The introduction of a butterfly so large and recog- 

 nizable as the Sphinx Atropos into a well-peopled 

 hive, and the extraordinary consequences thence 

 resulting, are phenomena of the more difficult expla- 

 nation, from nothing in the organization of the insect 

 indicating that it is screened from the sting of bees. 



" We have been anxious to witness this singular 

 contest in glass hives, but no opportunity has hitherto 

 offered. However, to solve some of my doubts, I 

 have made a few experiments on the mode in which 

 the Sphinx is received by humble bees. 



" Having procured some of the largest size, I intro- 

 duced them at night-fall into a glass box, where a 



* " Reaumur ascribes the sound to the friction of the trunk 

 gainst its sheaths, but we have ascertained that this organ 

 has DO share in it. Though many naturalists have investigated 

 its source, nothing satisfactory is known on the subject. It if 

 undoubted that the Sphinx emits the sound at pleasure, and 

 particularly when affected by the apprehension of danger." 



