432 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of Europe. May was again cold, and the warm and humid 

 summer in Surrey was productive of roses. Strange to say, 

 this clumsy creature is sometimes seen flying out in the 

 Channel. At the commencement of May, 1878 and 1882, in- 

 dividuals that had probably hybernated were taken on the 

 coasts of Devon and Antrim. It is conjectured the "boanerge" 

 squeaks in order to terrify the bees when it enters their hives 

 to steal the honey, itself being deaf or dull of hearing, and 

 inasmuch as the piping of the queen is understood to be a 

 signal to swarm, and it is the custom to din on pots and pans 

 when her colonists cluster around her on the horse-chestnut 

 flowers, it is to be supposed that the bees who must hear, and 

 who might perceive no evil omen in a skull and cross-bones, 

 would quake with terror ; invariably when it is disturbed it 

 squeaks, but this would not hoax an Owl that feeds on mice. 

 Still, this is not the only objection, for when the male moth 

 squeaks it inflates its abdomen, and expands two yellow fans on 

 either side into a star, which, like a composite flower, shed 

 around their musky fragrance of jasmine or tuberose, comparable 

 to that emitted by the feather tufts of the Catopsilia butterflies. 

 At such times the " death's-head " has a remote resemblance to 

 a large puff-ball. The alarming sound, according to Dr. Landois, 

 is produced by the short tongue that it rubs along a striation in 

 a groove that will be found at the base of the palpi, much as a 

 scythe is whetted on the stone, for he discovered, when the palpi 

 were removed, the moth could squeak no longer ; and Mr. Joseph 

 Anderson says, in the ' Entomologist,' that he is certain it is by 

 the tongue that the squeaking is produced, for when he pressed 

 it the noise ceased. 



(To be continued.) 



