FOOT — ON IRISH LEPIDOPTERA. 13 



twenty years ago. She was a very nervous person, and had taken a 

 most gloomy view of her case. He was standing at a window oppo- 

 site to the foot of the bed in which she lay, when he observed a large 

 dark brown moth on the white bed curtains, which, on closer inspec- 

 tion, he found to be a beautiful specimen of the death's head moth, and 

 which he still preserves. Knowing the patient's temperament, and 

 the superstitious feelings entertained by some with regard to these 

 moths, and at the same time anxious to secure his prize, he was obliged 

 to exert some ingenuity to effect his purpose, which he succeeded 

 in doing without being noticed. It is strange how circumstances of 

 ill omen seem to gather round this insect, which is in all parts of the 

 world regarded with fear and awe by the uneducated, and has been 

 considered to be the herald of plague, famine, or some dire calamity. 

 This moth is very generally distributed over the world ; some very fine 

 specimens of it from China and India are in the Entomological de- 

 partment of the Koyal Dublin Society ; but none of them exceed in 

 size the Irish examples which I exhibit to the Society. In Japan it is 

 very abundant in favourable seasons. Mr. G. Lewis, writing from 

 Nagasaki, September, 1868, states he collected fifty of the larvse in ten 

 minutes from a small patch of sesamum orientale, and that it was 

 equally common everywhere on the same plant — (" Ent. Monthly Mag.," 

 vol. v., p. 173). 



The sounds made by the death's head moth, when frightened or 

 hurt, are like a squeak or squeal, and have been compared to the cry 

 of a mouse or weasel. When attempts are made to kill it with oxalic 

 acid, the loud squeak uttered as soon as the poisoned needle pierces it, 

 sounds very like a remonstrance ; and the strange noise continues with 

 unusual distinctness until the powerful acid has done its work — ("Ent. 

 Monthly Mag.," vol. v., p. 130). It loudly objects to the introduction of 

 the bulb of a thermometer into the inside of its body to ascertain its tempe- 

 rature. One of these moths was captured in a loft at Bandon, Co. Cork 

 (16th July, 1856), from having attracted attention by its cry, which was 

 described as resembling that of a rat or weasel — (" Nat. Hist. Rev.," vol. 

 iv., p. 79). The loud " squeaking" of four of these moths, on their emer- 

 gence from their pupal condition in the middle of the night, has awakened 

 the persons sleeping in the room with them — ("Ent. Monthly Mag.," 

 vol. v., p. 147). It has also been observed that the insect is able to 

 produce this sound before quitting the pupa case ; even in the larval 

 state it is said to be capable of making a noise. The caterpillar, if 

 disturbed at all, draws back rapidly, making at the same time, according 

 to some observers, a rather loud noise, which has been compared to the 

 crack of an electric spark — (Kirby and Spence's " Entomology," 7th 

 ed., p. 492). I could not induce the larva of this moth to make any 

 sound, although I gave it full provocation to complain if inclined to do so. 

 The noise in the adult insect is made by both sexes, sometimes, as in the 

 eicadse, the power of producing sound is peculiar to the males of insects, 

 whence Xenarchus extolled the fortune of those animals whose wives are 



