Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🦋 A moth genus 🦋 A large moth
Acherontia

Acherontia

9.9
A large moth with a skull-shaped mark on its back
  • proper noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Acherontia
  • The Acherontia moth, with its distinctive skull pattern, is often associated with folklore and mystery.

Examples

  • Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.

    The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

  • Starling, meet Mister Acherontia Styx.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Researchers studied the behavior of the Acherontia species in their natural habitat.

  • One fascinating fact about the Acherontia is its ability to produce a sound that resembles a squeak.

Synonyms

death's-head moth
vsAcherontia
9.9

A large moth with a skull-shaped dark mark on its back

is the formal genus name covering those species rather than the common name

Compounds

Acherontia atropos
  • Specialized
9.9

A large moth from Europe with a pattern like a human skull on its back

Surface Forms

Acherontia main

Etymology

Acherontia comes from the Greek river Acheron, which old stories call 'the river of the dead'. Because these moths have a skull-like mark on their back, the name fits their 'death's-head' look.