Anthropomorphism

It is regarded not as the creation of a benevolent being, but the device of evil spirits - spirits enemies to man - conceived and fabricated in the dark, and the very shining of its eyes is thought to represent the fiery element whence it is supposed to have proceeded. Flying into their apartments in the evening at times it extinguishes the light; foretelling war, pestilence, hunger, death to man and beast. (Moses Harris, 1840)

 Acherontia atropos
Acherontia Genus
Acherontia derives from Acheron, the River of Pain in the underworld
Atropos is the Fate who cuts the thread of life
(The other 2 species of Acherontia are named in like style:

• Acherontia lachesis, after the Fate who measures the thread of life and determines destiny
• Acherontia styx, named after the principal and boundary river of Hades)

Common Names
English - death’s-head hawkmoth
German - Totenkopfschwärmer
French - le sphinx à tête de mort
Spanish - Esfinge de la muerte


So while one can be a little sneery about humanity's tendency to read everything in existence in relation to individual human destiny, markings which ought to be dismissed as purely arbitrary and meaningless in spiritual terms have attracted the attention of the populace of every nation where this moth has appeared - none has read it neutrally. And while the entymologists might claim to be naming it in a knowing joking manner, one does just wonder if they were hedging their bets with superstition.