NEIL ARNOLD: Phantom Insects and Others Part Two

The folklore of the United States is littered with tales of ghostly insects. None more terrifying than the Arkansas Snipe, said to resemble a mosquito yet be so huge that it can eat a cow! Men claimed to have been attacked in the murky river bottoms by these giant forms which are said to have razor-sharp claws to slice their prey. Sceptics argue that such forms are merely critters created for fun. Some more quirky legends from the USA speak of almost comical wraiths, such as Cockroach Man, a weird humanoid of insect traits sighted in December 2003 in Chaffee, Missouri, by a motorist who couldn’t shake off the creature despite travelling at 50 mph along a deserted road. A majority of quirky creatures said to roam the backwoods of American folklore are, however, considered nothing more than ‘fearsome critters’, a term applied to a menagerie of phantasms and forms constructed by the imaginations of lumberjacks.


In the UK Mantis Man was said to have appeared before a male witness in his London home in 2004, although such a being was believed, at the time, to have been an extraterrestrial, slightly resembling the bug-eyed ‘grays’ said to abduct humans. The hideous bedroom visitor stood five-feet in height but resembled a praying mantis, but wore a cape. Supernatural author Elliot O’ Donnell once encountered an insect-like ‘nature spirit’ in Greenwich Park, London. He recorded that on 24th July 1898 whilst perched on a bench something caught his eye ‘falling’ from a overhanging tree. Thinking it was a leaf, O’ Donnell was rather taken aback to see a peculiar form scuttling sideways into the undergrowth. He described it as, “stunted, pulpy, bloated and yellow” and being half-animal, half-human!

Not even Australia escapes the wrath of ghostly insects – a truly giant bee, the size of a man was sighted in 1992 in Queensland, when a female witness looked out of her window and saw this monstrosity loitering near a paddock. Although it would usually be difficult to tell a ghostly insect apart from a living specimen – unless it vanished into thin air – tales of truly monstrous insects often suggest some kind of demonic connection, for no garden, or jungle on Earth could hide a man-sized bee!

Spiders of a ghostly nature are common to in the supernatural realm. Massive, yellow and black monsters were said to prowl an isolated area in Ontario, Canada, in 1974, meanwhile Richard Freeman, manifested a freakish giant spider whilst he was a student in Yorkshire in the ‘90s. He called this critter Atlach Nacha, a name originally coined by fantasy author Clark Ashton Smith. Freeman, whilst studying at Leeds University in 1996 attempted to ‘raise’ a giant spider through a series of devoted, night-time rituals. Little did he realise just what freakish manifestation was about to erupt from his own imagination. Freeman spied the flat, white beast, which measured four-feet across, just before he left the premises and left it to its own devises. Freeman believed that his conjuring incited the ‘great Leeds spider plague’ which occurred shortly afterwards in the city.

In Japanese lore a creature known as the Dirt Spider is said to exist. Legend of the anomalous arachnid dates back to the eighth century. It is a shape-shifting demon which also goes by the name Tsuchigumo and may well have originated from tales of humans who were said to burrow beneath the soil and live underground. Over the centuries such tales were portrayed by imaginative artists who depicted half-human, half-insect creatures, and weird, zoologically incorrect insects with human characteristics.

Phantom, monstrous worms are widespread although these type of forms can melt into serpent and dragon lore. The Mester Stoor Worm, of Orkney, and the Lambton Worm of the north-east of England are the most popular giant worm stories. And then there is the Mongolian Deathworm, believed to be an undiscovered species of creature able to administer an electrical charge to kill its victims. The monster lives beneath the warm sands but is perceived as a cryptid – being that it is considered an unknown species rather than a spectral beast. However, due to its elusive nature the worm remains firmly embedded in folklore. The Polos is a monster worm from Russian folklore said to protect treasure. Again, this creature is seen as a bogey creature which kills any traveller should they seek out the secret location of the treasure.

One of the most hideous stories however is the tale of the Yorkshire maggot, a vampyric entity said to have emerged from a grave to prey on a village some time during the twentieth-century. The fat, greedy grub-like beast was observed by a Mr Mullins home one dark night, and he told his wife and best friend, who accompanied him the following night to track the creature. They saw the manifestation ooze towards the home of the local vicar and disappear at the door. The next day the vicar and his immediate family had fallen seriously ill, and then died mysteriously and the maggot of doom was seen again, this time heading towards the house of the local blacksmith who also eventually perished. Ten nights later the fetid creature was seen heading for the Mullins household, and they lost their ten-year old son. Sickened by the monster, Mullins and his wife sought the grave the monster had come from and found it belonged to a Mr Peters. They dug the grave, and burnt the corpse, believing that the form was a cursed creature sent by the deceased as revenge for past disagreements. The maggot was never seen again.

These ethereal insects are clearly not mere ghosts of insects swatted by newspapers, but what they do prove is that just when we think we’ve covered everything in the void of the paranormal, there’s always a sting in the tale!