DEATHS HEAD SPHINX. 4 1 



warlike ? How can a moth, the dread of supersti- 

 tious people, also exercise a secret influence over 

 insects, and have the faculty of paralyzing their 

 courage ? Does it emit any emanation pernicious 

 to bees ? 



" Other species of sphinges subsist on the nectar 

 of flowers alone ; they have a long, slender, flexible 

 spiral trunk, and seek their food at sunset. But the 

 Atropos is later on the wing ; nor does it hover 

 about the hives until night is far advanced. It is 

 provided with a thick, short proboscis ; is endowed 

 \vith great strength ; and when seized, some un- 

 known o'.gan emits an acute stridulous sound. May 

 not this, which inspires the vulgar with sinister 

 ideas, be also the dread of bees ? May not its re- 

 semblance to that emitted by the queen in her 

 captivity, which has the faculty of suspending the 

 vigilance of the workers, explain the disorder ob- 

 served in their hive on the approach of the Sphinx ? 

 But this is only a conjecture, founded on the ana- 

 logy of sounds, to which I attach no importance. 

 Meantime, were any piercing notes observed to pro- 

 ceed from the Sphinx during its assaults, and that 

 the bees then yielded without resistance, my con- 

 jecture would acquire some weight.* 



• " Reaumur ascribes the sound to the friction of the trunii 

 against its sheatlis, but we have ascertained that this organ has 

 no share in it. Though many naturalists have investigated its 

 source, nothing satisfactory is liuown on the subject. It is un. 



VOL. II. X) 



