Black Witch Moth (male)

Description:

A large colourful moth. It would have covered my hand with wings open like this.

Habitat:

Found last night under the veranda light in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica.

Notes:

WIKI: The Black Witch has a fascinating cultural as well as natural history. Known in Mexico by the Indians since Aztec times as mariposa de la muerte (butterfly of death). When there is sickness in a house and this moth enters, the sick person dies. (Hoffmann 1918) A variation on this theme heard in the lower Rio Grande Valley (Southmost Texas) is that death only occurs if the moth flies in and visits all four corners of one's house. The Black Witch has a fascinating cultural as well as natural history. Known in Mexico by the Indians since Aztec times as mariposa de la muerte (butterfly of death). When there is sickness in a house and this moth enters, the sick person dies. (Hoffmann 1918) A variation on this theme heard in the lower Rio Grande Valley (Southmost Texas) is that death only occurs if the moth flies in and visits all four corners of one's house. In some parts of Mexico, people joke that if one flies over someone's head, the person will lose his hair. Still another myth: seeing one means that someone has put a curse on you! 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. On Cat Island, Bahamas, they are locally known as Money Moths or Moneybats, and the legend is that if they land on you, you will come into money. Similarly in South Texas if a Black Witch lands above your door and stays there for a while you would win the lottery!