42 DEATH'S HEAD SPHINX. 



bees, whose stings are so much more dangerous, as 

 well as their numbers incomparably greater. Had 

 the light of a torch been an obstacle to the Sphinx 

 exercising its means of attack ? Possibly the success 

 of its enterprises on hives results from the faculty of 

 seeing during the night, like other moths of the same 

 genus. 



" Offering honey to these insects was equally fruit- 

 less. They remained during a week beside a comb 

 without touching it ; we unfolded the proboscis, and 

 dipped it among honey in vain. This experiment, 

 though succeeding perfectly with day butterflies, proved 

 abortive with the Sphinx Atropos. 



" Had I not obtained proofs of its avidity while in 

 the natural state, I might have entertained doubts of 

 the predilection for honey. Besides, the facts above 

 related are supported by my having recently dissected 

 a large Sphinx taken in the open air, and found the 

 abdomen quite full of pure honey, of the same taste 

 and consistence as that of the bees. The quantity 

 would have filled a tablespoon ; and what appeared 

 very singular, was its not being contained in any 

 particular intestine, but occupying the cavity usually- 

 reserved for air in the body of these insects. All the 

 vertical delicate membranes dividing the abdomen 

 into so many compartments had disappeared. I 

 cannot affirm positively whether they had been 

 ruptured by the quantity of honey gorging the 

 Sphinx, or by ourselves ; but one thing is undoubted, 

 that in others of the Sphinx Atropos, opened by us, 

 we have always seen the receptacles entire, though 

 empty." 







