On Thursday 5th October friends of Barry and Cathy Caudwell found this lovely and very large Death's Head Hawk-moth outside their lab in St. Andrews. It had attracted the attention of some local Magpies from which it was rescued. Barry and Cathy were privileged to become its keepers when it was kindly brought to them. As this species is known to raid bee-hives in its search for honey, it has been provided with an ample supply of honeycomb, as well as some lovely rotting apple.

This enormous moth, with an overall length of 6.5 cm, is a very rare migrant from North Africa.  It has a quite substantial body. Most remarkably it bears a "death head with cowl" or "skull and cross-bone" marking on the top of its velvety head (actually the thorax).  Barry was able to confirm that there have been 8 records of this moth in Fife since 1912, so it is a very unusual find indeed.  Unfortunately it is not likely to survive the winter in our area especially as it has a slightly damaged wing and cannot fly, but at the moment it remains alive and well in an aquarium tank!