As you may know from a previous post, I’ve been watching insect-themed horror films as part of my ongoing research for my upcoming insect book. Last night I watched Mothra (thanks to my friend Josh, who recommended it), which was made in 1961. Mothra goes on to fight Godzilla in later movies, but in this one she’s the star.

Mothra is a guardian/goddess of an ancient civilization of tiny humanoids who live on a remote island in the Pacific. When two diminutive and adorable fairies are abducted from their island paradise by an evil businessman, Mothra travels to Tokyo to rescue them.

As entomologist May Berenbaum points out in this article, the Japanese have a unique relationship to insects. They keep them as pets, stir-fry them for snack food, and hold firefly festivals every summer. So unlike many insect fear films of the era, this Japanese-made movie does not depict the giant insect as an evil creature bent on world destruction. Mothra is intelligent and telepathic, and although she ends up demolishing a large part of Tokyo (and, later, “New Kirk City”) with her giant wingspan, she’s actually a rather benevolent giant who’s just trying to rescue her people.

We get to see her in every stage of the metamorphic process. She hatches from an egg, swims across the ocean in her caterpillar stage, and pupates right on camera. In her larval stage she resembles a Japanese silkworm (Bombyx mori) but when she emerges from her cocoon she looks more like this colorful Saturnid Io moth.

Ronald F. Billings, Texas Forest Service, Bugwood.org