UNIQUE LEPIDOPTERA

UNIQUE LEPIDOPTERA

"Feathery antennae and the two forelegs issued forth, the legs clutching the cocoon in order to hoist the body through the narrow aperture. The furry and distended abdomen, upon which were hinged the crumpled wings, was drawn out with effort."

"Surely this specimen before him was unique. The wings were easily ten inches across and their color was so subtly graduated that it was impossible to say where black turned to purple to green and green back to black. The only definite delineations were a crablike simulacrum centered on each hind wing and upon each fore wing, the imitation of an open mouth with teeth bared. Both the crabs and mouths were chalked in white and vermillion."

John B.L. Goodwin, The Cocoon

This one was a real fun story about a neglected child collecting insects. A moth he finds and mounts on his wall begins to morph and the stain the wall. 

It was challenging though. Mostly, the wings. Having to create a subtle gradient that went from black to purple to green and back while including markings that resembled crabs and mouths....that was a lot. 

One part that I kept out was the description of the moth as a caterpillar. Only because the description sounded much like the E.F. Benson creature in The Caterpillars, which I've drawn before. But here it is:

 "Even in the bright electric glare it was reptilian. It was large for a caterpillar, between four and five inches long Denny guessed, and was a muddy purple color, it's underside a yellowish black. At either extremity it bore a series of horny protuberances of a vermillion shade; they were curved sharply inward and stiff little hairs grew from them. From its mouth there protruded a set of small grasping claws like that of a crustacean. Its skin was wrinkled like that of a tortoise and the abdominal segments were sharply denned. The feet lacked the usual suction-like apparatuses caterpillars have but were scaly and shaped like tiny claws."

Sounds a lot like this guy, but thought it was worth including here because it's cool.

This was first published in something called Story Magazine in October of 1946. It was anthologized a LOT especially in Timeless Stories For Today and Tomorrow (which was reprinted often, but this first edition has a cover by Charles Binger) and in Things With Claws (with a cover by the illimitable Richard Powers). As far as I can tell, though, the moth monster itself was never illustrated.

As far as moth monsters in pop culture there's the main lady, everyone's second favorite kaiju, Mothra! And her nemesis Battra! There's also a few regular size deadly moths/butterflies in East Asian cinema. The South Korean film Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death and the Hong Kong giallo-inspired martial arts film The Butterfly Murders feature deadly butterflies or butterflies that portend death. And back in the US our most famous example of a moth in a horror movie is the death's head moth from The Silence Of the Lambs. Lecter explains that moths represent change, transformation and rebirth, things that Buffalo Bill is seeking. The same thing applies to this story. 

In folklore, West Virginia's Mothman takes the cake. Here are some pics from our recent road trip where we stopped in Point Pleasant and the Mothman Museum!

Tomorrow's monster is a really fun desperate conglomeration creature. A classic yog-blogsoth style creature!