Chianti anybody?

Y'know what are beautiful and get smushed into powder far too often? Moths. Sweltering summer nights are ahead and my mother, the saint that she is, will lock me out of the house with the porch light on. I can see it now -- after imbibing one too many vodka + fill the the blank here a battle of epic proportions goes down: me vs. my house key vs. the moths. Ahh...summer.

160,000 species of moth exist on our fair planet! The Smithsonian offers a brief overview of moths on their Bug Info page (check it out here).

fava beans!

Now, a reference to The Silence of the Lambs is in order because I dig macabre stuff. The Death's Head Hawkmoth (genus Acherontia) are charming creatures and thanks to evolution's sense of irony, a tiny human skull pattern is found on the thorax (see right). Our favorite villain Buffalo Bill raised these kinds of moths in the film. In actuality, the cocoons were made from tootsie rolls and gummy bears (thanks imdb). A new morbid treat in the works? I think so.


It's also quite ironic I stumbled upon these moths during my plight to save the bees. These moths are known to attack beehives!

However, slight variations exist between this moth and the one famously featured on the poster. Salvador Dali's In Voluptas Mors was substituted for the organic skull found in nature (see left).

Three species of DHH moth are found in Europe and Asia including the Acherontia Styx Styx picture below.

Photo Credits:

Silence of the Lambs movie poster found here 

Death's head hawkmoth thanks to wiki

Dali image

Amazing natural artwork courtesy of this exceptionally cool moth enthusiast website