The skull-marked moth that squeaks

The death’s-head moth has two startling traits: a pale, skull-like marking on its thorax—the body section just behind the head—and the ability to squeak.

True Tales of the Insects describes that marking and sound, then records the ominous meanings people attached to them. The book recounts fears of war, illness and death; those are historical beliefs, not effects caused by the moth.^[1]

The distinction matters: the unusual mark and squeak belong to the insect. The omen belongs to the story people told about it.