









210 

THE INSECT WORLD. 
after sunset. If caught, or when teased, it utters a cry which is 
very audible. 
The Death’s-head Hawk-moth would be a very inoffensive 
being if it did not make its way into beehives, in order to steal 
the honey, of which it is excessively fond. Itis to no purpose that 
the bees dart their stings at the intruder, they only blunt them 
against its thick skin, and soon terrified at its presence, disperse on 
all sides. 
The caterpillar of the Acherontia atropos (Fig. 194) is the 
largest of all Kuropean caterpillars. It attains to as much as four 








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aw 

Fig: 194 .—Larva of the Death’s-head Hawk-moth (Achere 
and a half inches in length by e 
is lemon yellow, which ch 
From the fourth to the 
laterally with seven oblique baz 
ntta atropos). 
ight lines in diameter. Its colour 
anges into green on the sides and belly. 
tenth ring inclusively, it is ornamented 
ids of an azure blue, which are 
tinted with violet, and bordered with white on the side. These 
bands joining together over the back of each segment resemble so 
it many chevrons placed parallel to each other. The body is, moreover, 

