I was actually thinking about making a game called Mothman VS. Flatwoods Monster a few weeks ago, but laziness killed that idea while it was pupating.
I find butterflies much scarier than moths, probably because their ratio of wing to body is much higher. At least a moth has a fat little body and looks like something I can generally perceive as an animal, rather than just a crazy little papery living kite. Only a really huge moth will freak me out these days, but even a plain old yellow monarch fluttering around near me is enough to make me pretty uncomfortable. I'm also kind of terrified of touching a butterfly because as a kid I heard that if you so much as brush against their wings, their scales get scraped off and they DIE HORRIBLY, and somehow the potential for accidental murder made them even creepier.
There used to be a little semi-zoo-like place in town called Crystal Gardens that had various exotic little creatures like tamarinds and birds of paradise and even a darkened bat room. They also had an enclosure filled with "beautiful" tropical butterflies, you know, the fucking gigantic ones with wings the colour out of space. I think I only went in there once when I was young, but that was enough for me. I probably lasted about thirty seconds before I ran for the door.
It's just something about the innate weirdness of them. I can't really explain it, what with it being an irrational phobia and all. Maybe it's just an overactive imagination. I mean, shit, I saw Day of the Triffids when I was probably about 9 or so and for a short while I was scared of poppies, for fuck's sake. When I was really tiny I had a pop-up book about primates, and two of the pages had to be stapled together by my parents because they had a baboon with a fold-out gaping mouth that was possibly my first brush with raw animal fear.
Actually, all this reminds me: there was an episode of Star Trek: TOS that I remember vividly as being starkly terrifying, but I saw it once as a kid and I have never seen or heard of it ever again, to the point that I'm starting to wonder if it was a dream. It involved little starfish/pancake aliens that stuck to ceilings waiting for someone to pass underneath before they would glide down like something out of Metroid and latch on to the victim's back, sucking out their life force and leaving a nasty wound. Exposure to UV light caused them to burn horribly and scream. Does anyone else remember this, or am I completely out of my gourd?
