When I came to the surgery to open the clinic few Sundays ago there was a strange large insect resting on the wall close to the front door, I was able to recognise it at once due to the skull like markings on its upper thorax, it was a deaths head moth. This creature has long been thought to be a harbinger of war, pestilence, and destruction to man and beast alike. Its appearance was thought to be an omen of death in the house it enters, well whats new I thought, its come to the right place !! You have probably seen an artistically enhanced version of it on a poster for the film “The Silence of the Lambs”, in the same film the pupa of the deaths head moth were placed in the dead victims’ mouths by the serial killer.
The Deaths-head Hawk-moths are the largest moths found in the UK they are very rarely seen in the UK as they are chance migrants. The very few that you might see in the wild will have flown to Britain from Europe or even North Africa in the spring, they cannot survive our winters and die out with the first frost. It is amazing to me that such a small creature can fly many hundreds of miles. It is unusual because of its large size, because it flies by day, and also because it makes noises audible to the human ear. The noises it makes has been described as a ‘dismal, melancholy cry’ and like the ‘plaintive squeaking of a mouse’. In Poland, where it is known as the ‘wandering death-bird’, its cry was heard as a voice of anguish, the moaning of a grief-stricken child, this of course further adds to the evil reputation of this strange looking insect. Another name for this insect is ” Bee Robber ” as it enters bee hives to feed on the honey, for some reason the bees leave it alone, it is likely though that it can feed from other sources as well.
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