# Butterfly with woman's face
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 5, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272 "2005-01-05T20:48:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@iCandy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iCandy)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/1 "2005-01-05T20:48:32Z")
Hi all,
There’s a rumour going round that a large (as long as you hand) butterfly/moth was found off the coast of the UAE that has the face of a human woman. A friend sent me a picture of said butterfly/moth, and I could swear I’d seen the picture before.
I’ve uploaded the picture and this is the link:
[http://www.geocities.com/wolf3tt3/Image049.jpg](http://www.geocities.com/wolf3tt3/Image049.jpg)
I’ve searched the internet but haven’t come up with anything. Does anyone know if this is a species of butterfly/moth, if so what’s its name? Or if it’s a hoax that’s done the rounds somewhere else before.
Thanks!
Together we can fight the ignorance!!!
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/2 "2005-01-05T21:09:52Z")
I am not an entomologist. But, the linked image does seem to be a poorly lit and badly focused image of [a death’s head moth](http://www.angelfire.com/empire/zooempire/dhhmoth.html). My guess is that the photo is unaltered and the marking is simply a thicker variant of the skull. This may be common within the species, or a unique mutation in this individual. Either way, it’s an orangeish oval, with some dots and lines. Granted, if you let your imagination fill in a few details, it does look like a human face. But, so does this pale yellow circle, with two dots and three lines :dubious:
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### Author:  [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/3 "2005-01-05T21:11:25Z")
Hi, iCandy! Welcome to the SDMB!
The photo shows a species of sphinx moth, sometimes called a hawk moth. Many species have designs on the thorax that may look like faces or skulls. [Example](http://www.consult-eco.ndirect.co.uk/entomol/chmmoths/mothlist.htm).
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/4 "2005-01-05T21:33:32Z")
An ordinary moth? Of course not! It’s obviously [François Delambre’s wife](http://imdb.com/title/tt0051622/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9dGhlIGZseXxodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=2;ft=59;fm=1)!
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### Author:  [@iCandy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iCandy)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/5 "2005-01-05T22:27:29Z")
Thanks TwoTrouts and DocCathode! Will spread the word and stock ignorance in its tracks… least in my corner of the globe 😉
_lol_ rjk
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### Author:  [@iCandy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iCandy)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/6 "2005-01-05T22:31:30Z")
k now I remeber where I’d seen it 
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### Author:  [@Khadro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadro)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/7 "2005-01-05T22:34:30Z")
Now if only we could that moth onto a toasted cheese sandwich…
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### Author:  [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/8 "2005-01-05T22:43:00Z")
It’s a Halloweenus Costumeus moth.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/9 "2005-01-05T23:16:00Z")
The Deaths Head Moth. Made famous by [The Silence of the Lambs](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/posters).
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/10 "2005-01-05T23:19:30Z")
Here is a more scholarly [site](http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum/moths.htm).
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/11 "2005-01-05T23:21:25Z")
As poor quality as that image is, I think its actually a sticker of a woman on glass or a mirror with a butterfly behind it.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/12 "2005-01-06T00:33:32Z")
How the hell did you get Geocities to let you link to a picture??? They’ve never let me do that. Anytime I’ve tried, it never works.
Back to the OP. I give this a month before a bunch of freakos are worshipping it as a Virgin Mary sighting!!
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/13 "2005-01-06T01:11:30Z")
WTF is going on here? When I posted there was only **yoyodyne** who had a response before mine.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/14 "2005-01-06T04:16:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> WTF is going on here?
Wouldn’t _you_ like to know?
The OP was originally double posted and each thread had received responses before the staff could merge them back into a single thread.
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### Author:  [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterfly-with-womans-face/283272/15 "2005-01-06T04:57:37Z")
I submitted the link for the photo to the Lepidopterology Lab at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and they have definitively identified it as a rejected Hipgnosis Pink Floyd album cover.
Dr. Seamus Thorgerson commented, “I can’t be sure, but I believe it was a working draft for [Saucerful of Secrets](http://www.danceage.com/media/484-Pink-Floyd-A-Saucerful-of-Secrets.php) or [Meddle](http://www.danceage.com/media/481-Pink-Floyd-Meddle.php). Let me roll up some ‘research’ and I’ll get back to you.”