DURING the late 1940s I remember helping my uncle to search for Colorado beetles in his potato patch.

We came across a chrysalis of a large moth. At that time I collected moths and butterflies so I waited to see what would emerge.

I kept it in a shoe box with breathing holes punched in the lid. A few days later a large hawk moth appeared. It was an awesome, but beautiful, creature. I was eager to add it to my collection but lost the nerve to kill it, so I let it free into the evening sky.

I did not know then that it was a death's head hawk moth and that it could emit a peculiar squeak when handled!

With this and the skull-like marking on its thorax, no wonder people found it repulsive. It is quite harmless and now like many hawk moths, rare.

Anne Williams,

The Old School,

Howsham, York.

Updated: 10:26 Thursday, October 25, 2001