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| - Fact Check: Rumours take venomous wings, turns butterfly into dreaded killer
According to the claim 150 people killed in three days after being bitten by a butterfly with snake-head wings
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India Today Fact Check
The “butterfly” in the viral post is actually a non-poisonous moth.
Butterflies are considered to be one of the most beautiful species in the insect family. But can a butterfly also kill humans with its venom?
A picture of a butterfly with snake head-like wings is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that its venom has killed 150 people in three days.
India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) finds this claim baseless. The butterfly in the viral picture is actually a moth, which is not poisonous.
The claim
The viral image shows a number of people gathered around a large moth. Initially shared by Facebook user Mou Hazra, it has been going viral once again lately. Till the filing of this story, the post has already been shared more than 2.55 lakh times.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
The claim in Bangla along with the image can be translated as, Beware everybody. 150 people have died in three days, mostly along the banks of the Gorai river in Kushtia. A new kind of butterfly with a hood like a snake has entered the country. It is beautiful, but one can’t survive even 5 minutes after being bitten by it.
The Gorai river in Kushtia mentioned in the post is in Bangladesh.
The butterfly in the viral picture is actually a moth. We cropped the image and searched it on Google. There were several articles containing the image one by Dhaka Times, a national daily in Bangladesh. Translation of the article revealed the name of this particular moth it’s called Atlas moth.
We checked the properties of Atlas moth on multiple science websites and found that it is not at all poisonous. Therefore, it is not possible that this harmless creature can kill someone.
And if so many people did die because of it, the same would have featured in reputed news websites which wasn’t the case. AFWA could not find any report mentioning such deaths.
The viral post also claimed that its bite can kill a human in five minutes, AFWA found an article published by Rice University in Texas, USA, that claimed the adult Atlas moth does not even have a mouth and it cannot eat anything.
We also found several videos on YouTube of people holding the moth in bare hands.
Here is a video showing the full development of the moth from its birth.
Interesting facts about Atlas moth
The Atlas moth (biological Atlas Attacus) is one of the largest moths in the world, and its wings can spread up to 25-30 cm. The moth is found in Southeast Asia and its cocoon is used to make Fagara silk.
The most interesting thing about this particular insect is that its wings resemble the head of a snake. According to National Geographic, the wings act as a defence mechanism from predators.
According to the article posted by Rice University, the Atlas moth drops to the ground when in danger and fans its wings to keep predators away.
Interestingly, Atlas moth isn’t the only insect that camouflages as a snake to save itself from predators. The Hawks moth at the caterpillar stage takes the form of a pit viper snake when disturbed.
Here is a video of the snake-like harmless caterpillar.
Though these moths do not possess any lethal properties, it is to be noted that there are certain moths that can cause harm to humans. But Atlas moth is not one of them.
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