FOOT — ON IRISH LEPIDOPTEIiA. 1 1 



being not unfrequently turned up in digging potatoes. Mr. Birchall 

 observes the death's head moth is generally distributed in Ireland, but 

 is not so abundant as might have been expected in the metropolis of 

 the potato plant. (Catalogue, Op. cit., p. Gl.) 



I take this opportunity, in exhibiting the chrysalis of the death's 

 head moth, to show four very fine specimens of the perfect insect, with 

 most of which some incident of interest is connected. One is an insect, 

 nearly five inches in expanse of wings, taken this autumn in the county 

 Cork, and sent up to Dublin alive ; it lived without any food for nearly 

 three weeks under a glass fern cap, the size of a hat ; honey and sugar 

 were placed near it, but it was not observed to touch them, probably it 

 did so at night ; it made a squeaking noise when handled ; another is from 

 Sligo, and was captured by the late Captain King ; the third was taken 

 on board a fishing boat, at a considerable distance from land, oif the 

 coast of Kerry. This great sphinx has on several occasions been taken 

 far out at sea, as have several others of the larger Lepidoptera — for in- 

 stance S. convolvuli has been taken 25 miles from shore, struggling 

 in the water; A. villica has been taken on a boat fifteen, miles out; 

 Brassica and Aglaia, seven or eight miles from land (" Trans. Ent. Soc." 

 N. S., vol. iii., Proc. p. 117). Mr. W. H. Flower exhibited to the 

 Royal Zoological Society two specimens of a death's head moth, 

 (A. atropos), taken on board the " Hotspur," East Indiaman, Captain 

 H. Toynlee, on her homeward voyage, in lat. 40° 29' N., long. 15° 

 00' W., 260 miles from the coast of Portugal, after an easterly gale ; 

 also a specimen of S. convolvuli, ? , which flew on board the same ship in 

 lat. 12° 09' N"., long. 21° 17' W. — the prevailing winds being westerly 

 and northerly. ("P. Z. S. L.," 1866, p. 305). A passenger on board the 

 steamship " Pera" (Oct. 12, I860), about twelve miles east of Cape Bon, 

 Africa, while sitting in the after part of the vessel, observed a "painted 

 lady," which appeared to come from seaward, and readily overtook the 

 steamer, which was then making 10| knots an hour ; the insect often 

 soared high, and did not seem at all fatigued ("Zoologist," July, 1869, 

 p. 1768). The fourth specimen of the death's head was taken out of a 

 beehive under the following circumstances : — A gentleman in the 

 county Kerry noticed that his bees were daily deserting one of their 

 hives in numbers ; they were seen in crowds on the ground about the 

 hive, dead from cold and exposure to the autumnal dews. One night he 

 and his gardener, anxious to find out what could be wrong inside the 

 hive, lifted it off the stand, which was a safe operation, as hardly any 

 bees remained in the hive, and they found a death's head inside it, 

 quietly settled in a corner ; it was sent up to me in a vesuvian box, for 

 which it was rather a tight fit, with the query, "could it be a kind of 

 queen bee ?' ' Huber was the first who called attention to this propensity 

 of the death's head to enter beehives; it is said to be attracted to these 

 places by its love for honey ; and the impunity with which it can ven- 

 ture into such places is explained by some as due to the hardness of 

 its body, which is said to be impenetrable to the stings of the bees — 



