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THE EATH'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 in- 

 sects. 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 

 neighborhood. 



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

 sembled 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 favorites, 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 antennas 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. VVestwood 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 in- 

 vestigations 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 junc- 

 tion. 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-colored hairs below 

 the wings is seen to expand at the same time. 



The color 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 color 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 gray, 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 of which this is composed are beautifully soft, 



