The 
this subterranean torpor, emerge at last the 
perfect winged insects. 
The creature, in all its stages of existence, 
has the curious power of emitting sounds. 
The larva on bemg interfered with draws 
back its head angmly and makes a sharp 
snapping noise ; the chrysalis when about to 
pass to the moth stage squeaks very audibly, 
while the moth itself. gives a sharp mouse- 
like cry when handled; uncanny peculiarities 
that render it yet more an object of terror 
to the superstitious. Another curious habit 
the creature has in its final stage, is that 
it is so particularly fond of honey that 
it creeps into the beehives in search of it, 
From Photographs 
Death’s-Head Hawk-Mioth. 67 
CHRYSALIS OF DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH. (Natural Size.) 
Showing under side. 
abstracting by means of its 
short proboscis the honey 
from its rightful, owners, 
who are quite unable to 
eject the marauder. 
The scientific appella- 
tion of the Death’s-Head 
is Acherontia Atropos, 
names recalling, in classic 
mythology, the gloomy 
river bordering the shades 
of death, and the relentless 
Fate who severed at her 
will the thread of human 
life. It is curious that 
while we have in Britain 
no other insect at all like 
it, if is not by any means 
a unique design in nature, 
the A. Medusa and the 
A. morta, for instance, 
of Japan, Java and the 
far Hast generally, being 
almost identical in size, 
colour and markings. with 
the A. Atropos of Kurope, 
the subject of our illustra- 
tion, and bearing, as their 
names clearly suggest, the 
same strange, skull-hke 
form on the thorax. 
DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH—MALE. (Natural Size.) 
Upper and under sides. 
{In next month’s Animan Lire will be published an article 
by Mr. Fred Enock, F.L.S., on the life history of the 
Dragon Fly, illustrated with another series of this author’s 
remarkable photographs from life.] 
NS 8 2) 
