Devil's Eye Moth

Cryptologic Name: Capuridae Diaboculus
Planar Origin: Materia
Habitat: Forested mountainsides
Diet: Herbivore; primary diet is tree sap

Appearance & Morphology
The devil’s eye moth is a large species of magical moth which is primarily brown in coloration. Both its fore and hindwings have bands of blue-violet color across the width of the wing and golden yellow along the outer margins. Their most recognizable trait is the presence of large, red eye spots in the center of their hindwings, for which they earned their name.

Magical Abilities & Behavior
This moth’s active magical abilities center around these large red eye spots on their wings, which glow ominously when revealed and will cause a temporary state of stasis in any living creature which sees them. This stasis essentially renders the creature frozen in place for approximately 4-5 minutes before regaining faculty. This is often compared to the eyes of petrifying species such as the gorgon, basilisk, or cockatrice in that it requires the creature to see the source of the magical power (the eye spots of this moth or the actual eyes of the other species mentioned). As such appropriate countermeasures can be used when dealing with these creatures such as enchanted ocular devices and the like.

Like many of their nonmagical counterparts, these moths rest with their wings folded back, obscuring the red eye spots and making them fairly well-camouflaged on the trunks of the large trees they will land on to drink the sap and making their eye spots inactive on any random forest creatures that happen to be passing by. Being moths, however, they are rather tasty prey for many creatures and will generally use their power as a defense mechanism against such predators, allowing them to escape. Unfortunately this is not a particularly effective strategy against one of their primary predators, bats, as they generally use echolocation rather than vision to locate their prey.

Field Notes

• While discussing the magical state of stasis the devil’s eye moth produces in creatures who see its glowing red eye spots, I noted that it is often compared to the petrifying gaze of several other species. There are a few key differences, however, in how this power works which should be noted. First and foremost, gorgon and basilisk eyes retain their magical qualities even if the creature is no longer alive, while cockatrice eyes and the spots on the devil’s eye moth require mana to actively be supplied in order to achieve the effect, which means that if the creature is no longer alive, the power ceases to work. As such you cannot as easily petrify/stun creatures in the same manner as Perseus, by simply lopping the relevant part off and waving it at your enemies. It is possible to channel mana through the wings to recreate the moth’s power, but it takes a great deal of research and practice to be able to manipulate the mana in a specific and subtle enough way to successfully achieve this.

• I should also note, though if you’ve made it this far you’ve probably figured it out already, but the moth’s power also doesn’t function through photographs, so you don’t need to worry about becoming frozen by seeing pictures of these creatures, even if they are displaying their eye spots.