1. Lime Hawk
2. Lime Hawk Caterpillar
1. Death’s Head
2. Death’s Head Caterpillar
PLATE XXI
THE DEATH’S HEAD HAWK (1 and 2)
This is the largest of all the British hawk moths, for its outspread wings often measure as much as five inches from tip to tip. You cannot possibly mistake it for any other insect, for on its back it has a patch of short yellow hair which looks just like a skull. That is why it is called the “Death’s Head.” If you want to find the caterpillar you should look for it in potato fields in the month of August. It is a great yellow creature, four or even five inches in length, with seven blue stripes on each side, and a yellow horn on its tail. And if you meet with it, and pick it up, you will be surprised to find that it can squeak quite loudly! Stranger still, the chrysalis can squeak too, and so can the moth! Indeed, if you pick up a Death’s Head Hawk Moth it will go on squeaking very much like a mouse all the time that you hold it in your hand!
The caterpillar of this grand moth feeds chiefly on potato leaves, but is sometimes found on jessamine and buckthorn. When it is fully fed it buries itself eight or ten inches deep in the ground, and turns into a huge reddish-brown chrysalis, from which the moth generally hatches out in October.