86 



Observations on the various Insects 



Sphingid;e, and was included in the Genus Sphinx, until it 

 was separated from that immense Family and received the ap- 

 pellation of Acherontta. The species was named by Linnaeus 



18. A. Atropos.* The wings sometimes expand 5 or 6 inches: 

 it is densely clothed with short pile, like fustian : the eyes are 

 large and prominent, and close to them at the back part of the 

 head are inserted the horns, which are stoutest in the males, 

 rather short, robust, and black, narrowed at the base, white and 

 hooked at the tips : in front of the head are 2 erect palpi, and 

 between them a short, stout, horny, black proboscis, which is 

 rolled up spirally in repose : the thorax, as well as the head and 

 superior wings, are black, with an ashy tint ; on the former is an 

 orange-coloured figure resembling a human skull, with the neck 

 and collar-bones : the abdomen is black with a greyish stripe 

 down the back and 5 or 6 long orange spots on each side, alter- 

 nating with as many black bands : wings sloping (like the roof of 

 a house) in repose : superior black minutely freckled with white, 

 variegated with rusty patches, and several black transverse broken 

 waved lines ; one near the base, 2 others nearer the apex and a 

 spot on the disc, bright ochreous : inferior wings bright orange 

 with 2 black indented bars nearly parallel with the margin, which 

 is formed of orange spots ; the fringe of the wings is scarcely 

 visible : it has 6 stout black legs, with 2 strong and distinct claws 

 on each foot. 



Although the Death's-head caterpillars either retire into the 

 ground by day or otherwise secrete themselves, coming forth 

 principally at night to feed, they are not secure against the untir- 

 ing diligence of an Ichneumon fly, which lays her eggs in the 

 body of the larva?, where the maggot hatches, grows to a large 

 size, and changes to a pupa within its victim, from which eventually 

 the parasite emerges instead of the moth. 



It is the largest of our British Ichneumons, and is included in 

 the Order Hymenoptera, the Family Ichneumonid^:, and 

 the Genus Trogus.| The species I named, after the insect it 

 was bred from, 



19. T. Atropos J It is bright ochreous: head transverse with 

 a black stripe on the crown, spreading along the base and termi- 

 nating in a point, on the face ; eyes lateral, with 3 ocelli in triangle 

 on the crown; antennae black, the basal portion orange, long and 

 setaceous, inserted close together near the middle of the face, 

 composed of about 40 joints, 1st joint the stoutest: thorax robust, 

 oval, and black ; scapulars, a line before them and a spot beneath, 



* Curtis's Brit. Ent., fol.andpl., 147, where coloured figures of the moth 

 and caterpillar are given, as well as dissections, 

 t Curtis's Guide, Genus 496. 

 % Curtis's Brit. Ent , fol. and pi. 234. 



