DEATH S-HEAD MOTH. 



iit 



yellow or yellowish colour, green towards the head, and granulated 

 and speckled with black on the back. On the sides are seven oblique 

 lateral stripes, meeting on the back, the lowest end pointing foremost, 

 the colours being blue, with some white and lilac. At the tail is a 

 horn-like process bent down, and turned up again at the tip, and 

 tubercled on the surface. The figure at p. 118 shows a specimen not yet 

 fully grown. 



There is a variety of a brownish olive colour mentioned by Stainton 

 as occurring " sometimes, but very rarely," which I have once had a 

 specimen of. 



The caterpillars usually feed by night on Potato leafage, and last 

 year, as in others (when sent at all), the attack has been so little 

 represented that it would not be worth mentioning again but for the 

 splendid size of one moth sent me. 



This was forwarded to me at the beginning of October, per favour 

 of the Editor of the ' North British Agriculturist,' from a Wigtonshire 

 correspondent,* as a rare insect, with remarkable powers of emitting 

 sound, or, as it was phrased, "in full voice." On examination I 

 found the specimen was a Death's-head Moth in most beautiful con- 

 dition, and the very largest of the species that I have ever §een. This 

 moth is our largest British kind, and is given by various writers as 

 from four to five, or even over five, inches in the spread of the wings. 

 The fine specimen figured at p. 116 is just under five inches, but the 

 one sent to myself being larger still, by measurement fully or upwards 

 of 5i inches in the spread of the fore wings, it seems worth while to 

 record the observation of such a very fine specimen. 



The Death's-head Moth is very richly coloured. The fore wings 

 dark brown, with various black and rusty, and also some ochrey bands, 

 wavy lines and other markings. The hind wings orange, with a broad 

 black band near the outside, and a narrower one within. The 

 abdomen is also orange, with black cross stripes, and a row of bluish 

 spots, or rather perhaps a kind of lead-coloured band, down the middle. 

 The head, and body between the wings, brownish black, and on the 

 back is a pale skull-like marking. Altogether it is a magnificent 

 insect, and from the so-called " Death's-head " on the back, and also 

 its power of emitting a very audible noise like a low squeak, or cry, on 

 annoyance, has at times caused a good deal of superstitious alarm. 



Another name of this moth is the " Bee Tiger," from the propensity 

 ascribed to it of entering bee-hives, and robbing the Bees of their 

 honey, which certainly stands recorded on trustworthy authority, but 

 I have never met with an instance of it myself. Possibly the great 

 alteration in the method of Bee-keeping at the present date, in boxes 



* For account see number of ' North British Agriculturist ' for Oct. 5th, 1892. 



