Whether they make you squirm with the creepy‑crawlies or thrill you like a budding entomologist, insects and arachnids rank among the most modest creatures on Earth—and we often quite literally kick them out. Throughout history, myth and legend have woven fantastical narratives around these skittering companions. Below you’ll find the 10 tales creepy collection of insects and arachnids that earned a place in mythology.
10 Tales Creepy: A Journey Through Mythic Bugs
10 Mosquitoes
In Buddhist tradition, the mosquito is cast as a mischievous spirit. Lafcadio Hearn’s collection Kwaidan recounts the belief that this incessant blood‑sipper is the reincarnated mischief of the Earth’s wickedness. A Vietnamese folk narrative adds another layer, telling of a grieving husband who bargains with a genie to revive his vain wife using three drops of his own blood.
When the resurrected wife abandons him for a wealthy sea captain, she demands those three drops back. To free herself, she pricks her finger, letting the blood flow, only to wither and die again. She returns as the first mosquito, forever seeking the three drops from her former husband to regain human form.
9 Scorpions
Scorpions may not win beauty contests, yet ancient myths treated them with unexpected reverence. In Mesopotamian lore, scorpion‑men guarded the sunrise and sunset mountains, acting as emissaries of the Sun god. Their stinging prowess was seen as a divine safeguard.
Egyptian stories tell of Isis being shielded by seven scorpion guardians. When a noblewoman ignored Isis’s visit, the scorpions slipped into her home and stung her son as a reprimand. Isis then healed the child, and the humbled woman spent the rest of her days as a generous citizen.
8 Butterflies
Butterflies flutter between nostalgia and wonder. Japanese folklore, as recorded by Lafcadio Hearn in Kwaidan, holds that butterflies are the souls of the departed. A massive swarm over Kyoto before a historic rebellion was read as an omen of death, the souls of those soon to fall in battle.
Conversely, more hopeful omens exist: a butterfly slipping through a screen door foretells a visit from a loved one, while a white butterfly sighting in Louisiana is considered a harbinger of good luck.
7 Grasshoppers
The Yaqui people of the Southwest US and Mexico spin a lively tale of a grasshopper and his cricket companion. After a wine‑filled banquet, the duo climbs onto a sleeping lion and begins a boisterous song.
The lion, irritated by the nocturnal concert, tries to wander away, but the grasshopper and cricket cling to his tail, continuing their melody wherever he roams. In annoyance, the lion finally shooes them off, and ever since, he hides far from the two singers to avoid their midnight serenades.
6 Bees
Bees buzz with industrious spirit, earning them a place in several ancient tales. The Hindu Vedas recount how bees vanquished a honey‑destroying foe, while Greek myth celebrates Aristaeus, the beekeeper god. Aristaeus once tried to steal Eurydice, Orpheus’s wife; after she stepped on a snake and died, he lost all his bees as punishment.
Seeking redemption, Aristaeus offered a sacrifice to Apollo, who restored his hives. Egyptian lore also venerates bees as soul symbols, believing that the hum of the afterlife echoes back to the living world as the bees’ buzzing.
5 Spiders
Spiders, though often feared, hold revered roles across cultures. Hopi tradition credits Grandmother Spider with weaving the world into existence, while West African tales celebrate Anansi the trickster. In Oceania, the island of Nauru tells of Areop‑enap, a mighty spider captured by a clam.
Using her ancient powers, Areop‑enap summoned a caterpillar to battle the clam. The caterpillar’s sweat killed the clam, forming the sea; the clam’s upper shell became the sky, its lower shell the land. She turned the fallen caterpillar into the Milky Way and spun plants into being with her silk.
4 Ants
Ants, celebrated for strength and teamwork, feature in a Yoruba story about a snooping elder named Ole. Ole discovered an ant colony constructing a nest inside his home and, seeing an opportunity, let them continue, planning to perch atop their mound and watch the village.
When the mound was finished, Ole climbed up, only to realize the ants had begun gnawing his house and stealing his food while he surveyed from above. The townsfolk mocked him, and Ole eventually perished—whether from shame or laziness remains a mystery.
3 Dragonflies
Dragonflies, with their sleek, dragon‑like silhouettes, earned a heroic role in Persian legend. A village sage warned that a colossal dragon would devour the Sun, casting the world into perpetual night.
The wise man gathered seven dragonflies and released them at intervals as the dragon approached. The insects’ frantic buzzing terrified the beast, causing it to release the Sun and restore daylight, saving the world.
2 Ant Lions
The ant lion, a lacewing‑like predator, appears in classical myth as a creature split between ant and lion. This dual nature became its downfall: as part lion it could not digest plants, and as part ant it could not consume meat, leaving it unable to eat anything and doomed to starve.
Other traditions simply label the ant lion the “lion of ants,” a fierce hunter of smaller ants. While the logical description prevails, the tragic dual‑nature tale adds a poignant layer to its mythic legacy.
1 Cicadas
Cicadas, whether charming or grating, have carved their niche in world folklore. In the Andaman Islands, their nocturnal chorus is believed to be inseparable from night itself—a symbiotic element of darkness.
One legend tells of an ancestor who stepped on a cicada, whose cry of pain plunged the world into endless night. Villagers sang and danced until the Sun finally resurfaced. Another tale notes that Andaman peoples would deliberately make cicadas weep to gain respite from the Sun’s relentless heat.