524 THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH. 



THE splendid insect appropriately named the DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH, is tolerably common 

 in our island, though, from its natural habits, and the instinct of concealment with which 

 the caterpillar is endowed, it is not so frequently seen as many rarer insects. Owing to 

 the remarkably faithful delineation of a skull and bones upon the back of the thorax, the 

 insect is often an object of great terror to the illiterate, and has more than once thrown a 

 whole province into consternation, the popular idea being that it was some infra-natural 

 being that was sent upon the earth as a messenger of pestilence and woe, if not indeed 

 the shape assumed by some witch residing in the neighbourhood. 



I once saw a whole congregation checked while coming out of church, and assembled 

 in a wide and terrified circle around a poor Death's-head Moth that was quietly making 

 its way across the churchyard-walk. No one dared to approach the terrible being, until 

 at last the village blacksmith took heart of grace, and with a long jump, leaped upon the 

 moth and crushed it beneath his hobnailed feet. I keep the flattened insect in my 

 cabinet, as an example of popular ignorance, and the destructive nature with which such 

 ignorance is always accompanied. 



Although in itself a perfectly harmless creature, it yet has one unpleasant habit, and is 

 said to make its way into beehives for the purpose of feeding on the honey. Still, its 

 numbers are so inconsiderable, that it could do but little harm in an apiary, and need not 

 be dreaded by the owner. 



The caterpillar of this moth is enormously large, sometimes measuring five inches in 

 length, and being very stoutly made. It feeds on various plants, the jessamine and 

 potato being its favourites, and may be best found by traversing potato-grounds in the 

 night, and directing the light of a bull's-eye lantern among the leaves. It can be readily 

 kept and bred, but requires some careful tending, and it must be remembered that it will 

 only eat the particular food to which it has been accustomed, and if bred among the 

 potato will refuse the jessamine leaf, and vice versa. When the caterpillar is about to 

 change into its chrysalis state, it should be placed in a vessel containing seven or eight 

 inches of earth, which should be kept moderately damp by means of a moist sponge or wet 

 piece of moss laid on the top. If this precaution be not taken, the shell of the chrysalis 

 is apt to become so hard that the moth is unable to break its way out, and perishes in the 

 shell. I have several specimens where the moth has thus perished. The caterpillars are 

 also much infested by ichneumon-flies, so that the collector often finds his hopes of a fine 

 insect destroyed by these small and fatal flies. It is worthy of remark that when this 

 moth first emerges from the chrysalis shell, its wings, legs, and antennae are enveloped in 

 a fine and delicate membrane, which soon dies when exposed to the air, and falls off in 

 pieces, permitting the limbs to unfold themselves. Mr. Westwood regards this membrane 

 as analogous to the pellicle upon the pseudimago of the may-fly, described at page 493. 



One of the most curious points in the history of the Death's-head Moth is its power 

 of producing a sound, a faculty which is truly remarkable among the Lepidoptera. The 

 noise is something like the grating, squeaking cry of the field-cricket, but not nearly so 

 loud. The mode of producing the sound is rather doubtful, but modern investigations 

 seem to confirm the opinion of Huber and Rosel, who thought that the sound was 

 produced by friction of the abdomen against the thorax just at the junction. At all events 

 it is certain that the moth always bends its abdomen downwards whenever this squeak or 

 cry is heard, and a circular tuft of orange-coloured hairs below the wings is seen to expand 

 at the same time. 



The colour of the caterpillar is bright yellow, and the body is covered with many 

 small tubercles. Along each side run seven oblique bands of a fine green. At the end 

 of the tail is a granulated kind of horn, and upon the back are many spots of black and 

 blue. The colour of the moth is briefly as follows : On the upper surface the front 

 pair of wings are blackish brown covered with waved stripes and dashes of deep black 

 and powdered with white. There are also some stripes of rusty red on the edges. The 

 lower wings are ochre yellow, and marked with two bands of deep bluish grey, the 

 upper band about half the width of the lower. The thorax is blackish brown, and has 

 on its surface a marvellously accurate semblance of a human skull and collar-bone. The 

 plumes or lengthened scales o f which this is composed are beautifully soft, with a rich 



