Talk:Acherontia styx

Which species of moth was in "Silence of the Lambs" movie

This seems to be a little contentious; for purposes of clarification, the movie promotional posters showed Acherontia atropos, which would also be the species most likely to be imported, and is by far the most well-known. However, according to the script, the shipment of larvae was from "Suriname" - but none of the moths in this genus occur in Suriname, or even this hemisphere, so this is a problem in trusting the script. The actual moths *used* in the movie were not even this genus; they were hornworm moths altered with a magic marker to make the "skull head" on the thorax. The quote from the movie script, at the only time a species name is uttered, is Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx - so there is yet another conflict involving the script - this time, conflicting with the posters. Given that the only actual identifiable images of the moth are of atropos, and the fact that all of the other folklore and cultural references in history refer to atropos, it seems far better to discuss the link to the movie under atropos rather than under styx. Dyanega 18:21, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Scientific paper on species

This scientific paper may help with this article. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall. Death's head hawk moth, Acherontia styx westwood (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)- Its taxonomy and biology by Devi S. Jamuna*, Ramaraju K.Ambrosia10 (talk) 20:55, 27 August 2016 (UTC)