238 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



way to bee-hives. The construction of modern bee-hives 

 keeps it out, and when the old-style hives are used, an 

 efficacious remedy lies to hand, by covering the opening 

 into the hive with wire grating, fine enough to prevent 

 the entrance of insects larger than its rightful inmates. 

 According to some Continental apiarians, the bees are 

 aware of their liability to the intrusions of the moth, 

 and when located in the old-fashioned hive, erect a kind 

 of fortification at the portal, including a narrow and 

 turned passage, through which it would be impossible 

 for the moth to squeeze, while it is equally powerless to 

 force its way through by biting. 



Essentially a creature of the night, the Death's 

 Head Moth can hardly be roused into animation in 

 the day ; even by pinching, and throwing it into the air, 

 it can only be induced, and that in sluggish fashion, to 

 flutter the shortest distance. But on the wing, at night, 

 all is changed, for its power and endurance seem 

 immense ; few insects, indeed, possess a more powerful 

 and sustained flight. It is often met with by ships at 

 sea, to gain which it must have flown hundreds of miles 

 from land. A specimen flew on board a steamer on 

 her voyage from Africa, off Cape de Verde ; and one 

 has been taken by a fishing-boat in the North Sea, 

 about a hundred miles east of May Island ; and when 

 en route for the Amazons, Wallace and Bates anchored 

 off Salinas, at the pilot-station for vessels bound for 



