Ascalapha odorata

Ascalapha odorata
Female in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Genus: Ascalapha
Species: A. odorata
Binomial name
Ascalapha odorata
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Erebus odora
  • Otosema odora
  • Phalaena Bombyx odorata Linnaeus, 1758
  • Phalaena Bombyx odora Linnaeus, 1764
  • Erebus agarista Cramer, 1779
  • Erebus marquesi Paulsen in Philippi, 1871

The erebid moth Ascalapha odorata, commonly known as Black Witch, is a large bat-shaped, dark-colored nocturnal moth, found from Brazil until the southern United States. It is the largest noctuid found in the continental United States. In the folklore of many cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean, it's associated with death or misfortune.

Physical description

Female moths can attain a wingspan of 17 cm. The dorsal surfaces of their wings are mottled brown with hints of iridescent purple and pink, and, in females, crossed by a white bar. The diagnostic marking is a small spot on each forewing shaped like a number nine or a comma. This spot is often green with orange highlights. Males are somewhat smaller, reaching 12 cm in width, darker in color and lacking the white bar crossing the wings. The larva is a large caterpillar up to 7 cm in length with intricate patterns of black and greenish-brown spots and stripes.

Geographical range

The black witch moth is found throughout Central America and Mexico, with its distribution extending from Brazil to the southern United States.[1] Adults feed on overripe rainforest fruit, especially bananas, and larvae consume the leaves of plants. Most of its host plants are legumes. It favors Acacia species, Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus), and Candle Bush (Senna alata). It attacks mesquite and edible fig, and can be an agricultural pest.

The moth undertakes a northward migration during the late spring and summer, moving up through Central America and entering the northern reaches of its range. During this season individual adults and masses of larvae can be found from Texas to Florida. It is also found in Hawaii, but it is not native to the islands.

Folklore and mythology

The Black Witch moth is considered a harbinger of death in Mexican and Caribbean folklore. In many cultures, one of these moths flying into the house is considered bad luck: e.g., in Mexico, when there is sickness in a house and this moth enters, it is believed the sick person will die, though a variation on this theme (in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas) is that death only occurs if the moth flies in and visits all four corners of one's house (in Mesoamerica, from the prehispanic era until the present time, moths have been associated with death and the number four). In some parts of Mexico, people joke that if one flies over someone's head, the person will lose his hair.

In Jamaica, under the name duppy bat, the moth is seen as the embodiment of a lost soul or a soul not at rest. In Jamaican English, the word duppy is associated with malevolent spirits returning to inflict harm upon the living[2] and bat refers to anything other than a bird that flies.[3][4] The word "duppy" (also: "duppie") is also used in other West Indian countries, generally meaning "ghost".

In Hawaii, Black Witch mythology, though associated with death, has a happier note in that if a loved one has just died, the moth is an embodiment of the person's soul returning to say goodbye. In the Bahamas, where they are locally known as Money Moths or Moneybats, the legend is that if they land on you, you will come into money, and similarly, in South Texas, if a Black Witch lands above your door and stays there for a while you will supposedly win the lottery.[5]

In Paraguay people are afraid of the Black witch moth, as there is a mistaken belief about the moth urinating over their human "victims" and thereby inoculating their eggs, which then develop into maggots developing under the skin. Some also believe, if it touches your eyes, you can go blind. The maggots referred to are the myiasis-causing larvae of the human botfly (Dermatobia hominis). As a consequence of that belief, both the moth and the maggot are called with the common name "Ura". Both the name and folk belief are of unknown origin.

In Spanish, the Black With moth is known as "Mariposa de la muerte" (Mexico & Costa Rica),[6] "Pirpinto de la Yeta" (Argentina), "Tara Bruja" (Venezuela) or simply "Mariposa negra" (Colombia); in Nahuatl (Mexico) it is "Miquipapalotl" or "Tepanpapalotl" (miqui = death, black + papalotl = moth); in Quechua (Peru) it is "Taparaco"; in Mayan (Yucatán) it is "X-mahan-nah" (mahan = to borrow + nah = house);[7] Other names for the moth include the Papillion-devil, La Sorcière Noire, or the Mourning or Sorrow moth.

Pupae of the Black Witch moth were placed in the mouths of victims by serial killer 'Buffalo Bill' in the novel The Silence of the Lambs.[8] In the movie adaptation the moth was changed to a Death's-head Hawkmoth.

References

  1. ↑ Janzen, D. H. (Ed.). (1983). Costa Rican Natural History. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press.
  2. ↑ Frederic Gomes Cassidy, Robert Brock Le Page, A Dictionary of Jamaican English Page 164, University of the West Indies press, 2002 ISBN 976-640-127-6 Accessed via GoogleBooks September 5, 2008
  3. ↑ John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell, The Eclectic Magazine Leavitt, Trow & Co., 1844 Page 128, Original from the University of Michigan Digitized Sep 6, 2005 Accessed via GoogleBooks September 7, 2008
  4. ↑ Frederic Gomes Cassidy, Robert Brock Le Page, A Dictionary of Jamaican English Page 32, University of the West Indies press, 2002 ISBN 976-640-127-6 Accessed via GoogleBooks September 5, 2008
  5. ↑ The Black Witch Moth: Its Natural & Cultural History, by Mike Quinn
  6. ↑ Daniel H. Janzen Costa Rican Natural History Pages 679 & 687, University of Chicago Press, 1983 ISBN 0-226-39334-8 Original from University of Texas, Digitized Mar 26, 2008 - Accessed via GoogleBooks September 5, 2008
  7. ↑ Charles L. Hogue Latin American Insects and Entomology Page 323, University of California Press, 1993 ISBN 0-520-07849-7 - Accessed via GoogleBooks September 5, 2008
  8. ↑ Harris, Thomas (1988). The Silence of the Lambs. New York: St. Martin's. p. 95.
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