442 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



therein has long been asserted, and Aigner-Abafi gives (Illus. Zeils. 

 fur Ent., v., pp. 36 et seq.) a detailed historical account of the facts 

 relating thereto. Kiihn records (Naturf, xvi., p. 73), in 1779, an 

 example entering a bee-hive, at Eisenach, an unusual commotion 

 among the bees, leading to the discovery of the dead bodies of 

 several specimens of M. atropos in the hive, and he adds that, several 

 times, dead moths had been found in hives in the same town. He 

 suspects that they had entered in quest of honey, the short tongue 

 and slow heavy flight rendering it difficult for them to extract 

 their food from flowers. Huber,* in 1804 (Nouvelles Observ., ii., 

 pp. xi and 299), and other authors have given details of the 

 habit, and more modern confirmation of the facts is not lacking. 

 Aigner-Abafi states (III. Zeits. fur Ent., v., pp. 37 et seq.) that the 

 imagines, in early September, about 8 p.m., will fly round a hive 

 in concentric circles, that they then force their way into the 

 hive, stay only from two to five minutes, emerge, with the 

 legs and wings frequently covered with bees which are 

 quickly shaken off, the body, however, being often so full of honey 

 that the moth cannot fly (Bienenzeitung, 1861, p. 589); sometimes, 

 however, the moth is unable to find its way out, dies in the hive, 

 and is then encased in wax by the bees (op. cit., 1858, p. 214; 

 1859, p. 33), whilst, occasionally, the bees make the entrance smaller 

 so as to prevent the entrance of the moths. Aigner-Abafi himself, 

 in 1885, near Budapest, caught several moths at an apiary; he 

 says that they flew up rapidly at dusk, circled round the hives, 

 flew off if disturbed, but returned again, that each one entered 

 the hives suddenly, beating off the bees, who, however, frequently kill 

 a weak specimen, that, having filled itself, the moth emerged, 

 remaining a moment at the entrance as if half-dazed, and that, 

 at this time, he made most of his captures. He says that 

 the moth does not utter a squeak on flight, either on entering 

 or leaving the hive, but, whilst it is in the hive, and after 

 one has captured it, it squeaks incessantly. Stephens notes (Illus. 

 Haust., i., p. 118), on the authority of Backhouse, that one was 

 observed at Sunderland buzzing about a bee-hive, and Robson 

 says (Nat. Hist. Tra?is. North, and Durham, xii., p. 38) that 

 " Howse has an interesting example of M. atropos, found at 

 Creswell Hall, enclosed in a waxen covering by the bees, to whose 

 stores it had penetrated." At the meeting of the Ent. Soc. of London, 

 on May 4th, 1857, Westwood exhibited a skeleton of M. atropos, 

 lately found in one of his bee-hives. His attention had recently 

 been drawn to one of his hives, the stock of which did not 

 commence working and gradually got weaker and weaker till at 

 last scarcely 100 bees remained. On turning up the hive he 

 discovered the remains of the M. atropos exhibited attached to 

 the comb. Adye notes (Ent., xx., p. 302) the capture of a 

 large ? specimen at Christchurch when crawling over a bee-hive. 

 Dalglish records one (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1900, p. 250) taken 

 off a bee-hive, at Kilmarnock, on July nth, 1900. Cruttwell observed 

 * In a discussion in the Yorkshire Post, 1900, Boyes denied that M. atropos 

 visited bee-hives, stated that Huber was blind and obtained his information 

 secondhand, and suspects that all he wrote was the result of the fertile 

 imagination of his servant Francois Burnens. It is to be noted that Burneus has 

 always borne the reputation of being an excellent observer. 



