Mothmen

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Despite their colloquial name, mothmen are neither moths nor men of any sort– they are large, volant nocturnal predators of the rhamphorynchoid family of pterosaurs, found in tropical and subtropical woodlands across Sphaera. Historically, mothmen have often been labeled as harbingers of doom and misfortune, which may have a real connection to their ecological impact when over carrying capacity: as local mothman numbers rise, the population of mosquito-eating bats drops, resulting in an explosion of biting insects that frequently carry disease.
Though ominous in appearance, mothmen are quite docile and shy creatures, feeding primarily upon large insects, bats, nocturnal birds, and the occasional small terrestrial creature. They are solitary by nature, differing from their more communal cousins out of need for vastly broader hunting ranges. A mated pair of mothmen will hunt cooperatively in a shared territory and a parent will teach its young to hunt, but mothmen are by no means pack hunters.

Biology

Mothmen are deceptively humanoid in silhouette, though this is defied by their short, broad, rounded wings formed by patagia between the elongated fourth fingers and the ankles. Their heads are short and round, akin to barn owls, with wide mouths full of small, semi-serrated teeth shaped like horizontally-flattened cones. They have binocular vision, facilitated by a pair of very large, forward-facing eyes, and supplemented by their particularly sensitive hearing. Mothmen are covered in short, fluffy pycnofibres as insulation and camouflage.

Scientific Name

Anurognathus giganteus

Origin/Ancestry

Anurognathus ammoni

Average Weight

10 kilograms

Average Length

2 meters

Average wingspan

3 meters