$45.00
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Have you seen The Silence of the Lambs? It’s one of my favorite films. I encountered it during my impressionable teen years, and it made a meteoric crater of an impression. So many tense, terrific scenes… Remember Buffalo Bill like to collect insects?
The skull-like pattern and its fanciful associations with the supernatural and evil have fostered superstitious fears of Acherontia species, particularly Acherontia atropos, perhaps because it is the most widely known. The moths’ sharp, mouse-like squeaking intensify the effect. Nor is this a new attitude: during the mid 19th century entomologist Edward Newman, having earlier mentioned the mark on the thorax wrote: “However, let the cause of the noise be what it may, the effect is to produce the most superstitious feelings among the uneducated, by whom it is always regarded with feelings of awe and terror.”
These moths have been featured often in art such as by German artist Sulamith Wülfing, and movies such as Un Chien Andalou (by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí) and The Silence of the Lambs (in the film’s source novel, a different moth species is used; the Black Witch), and in the artwork of the Japanese metal band Sigh’s album Hail Horror Hail. They are also mentioned in Chapter 21 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, where Dracula has been sending moths for Renfield to consume.
The front of the frame is glass, the back is solid black, and it comes with a sawtooth hanger so it can be hung on a wall. There is a layer of cotton inside the frame to hold the specimen in place so it will not shift or break during transit. The specimen is not glued in permanently so the frame can be opened and the specimen removed if you wish to reframe, photograph, or use it for some other purpose. There are pins holding the lid to the frame in place. Take the pins out of the sides and carefully lift the lid off to remove the specimen.
