ARTHROPODS IN MOVIES AND SERIES

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International Refereed Research Journal
Vignettes of Research
Vol – III, Issue – I
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January – 2015
ISSN: 2320 – 1797
ANALYZING THE 7th ART –
ARTHROPODS IN MOVIES AND SERIES
Pedro de Souza Castanheira¹, André Wanderley do Prado¹,
Elidiomar Ribeiro Da-Silva² & Rafael Benzi Braga³
¹Laboratório de Diversidade de Aracnídeos (LABAR), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de
Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
²Laboratório de Insetos Aquáticos (LABIAQUA), Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade
Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
³Laboratório de Entomologia (LabEnt), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia,
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Correspondence should be addressed to Pedro de Souza Castanheira;
pedrocastanheira.bio@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Movies are a good source of information and teaching since its creation. In addition to a
strong relation between arthropods and humans, it is likely that they could inspire many
productions. Here we did a survey of movies and TV series inspired by arthropods, being
them in the productions or just used as reference, always as the main part of the plot. Their
bad reputation inspired many productions where they were considered as alien, giant, mutant
and social evil villains, however mostly in kid’s movies real ecological and behavior
characters are used to show them as good to the society. The total of 177 productions was
obtained, with arthropods belonging to 15 orders, from all living Subphyla.
KEYWORDS: Film, Arthropoda, Bugs, Cultural Zoology, Ethnozoology,
Pop Culture.
INTRODUCTION
Zoology and its diverse groups of animals have always been debated in different and diverse
types of media. The terrestrial arthropods correspond to the greatest part of the known biotic diversity
in the world, being a group of high diversity (high biomass) with many taxa acting as excellent
bioindicators (ANDERSEN, 1990; SCHOWALTER, 1995; BROWN, 1997; FISCHER, 2000;
FERRIER et al., 2004). With high richness and abundance, they cause fascination or fear upon
people, being therefore inspiration for many themes in different kinds of media, mainly because there
are, in the urban environment, many species of different groups of arthropods (spiders, ticks, flies,
mosquitos, cockroaches etc.). So, the more common animals for the great public some arthropods are,
the more they will be used in movies and TV productions (BERENBAUM & LESKOSKY, 2003).
In the last 15 years, many papers have been published addressing the presence of arthropods
(especially insects) in the Pop Culture. COELHO (2000, 2004) made an analysis on insect as
references in lyrics and cover art of rock music albums. MARIÑO PÉREZ & MENDOZA
ALMERALLA (2006) studied the presence of insects and other arthropods in some movies from 1938
to 2002. CHANTOURY-LACOMBE (2009) observed the relation between insects and some painting
techniques used in renaissance Europe. MONSERRAT (2009, 2011) in these two studies approached
Copyright © 2015. Authors. This is an open access refereed article distributed under the Creative
Common Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any
1
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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the influence of arthropods in paintings of El Bosco and Salvador Dali, respectively. MONSERRAT
(2010) made a great study on tattoos being influenced by arthropods in different ways. DA-SILVA et
al. (2014) have recently discussed the presence of insects as heroes or villains in Marvel and DC
Comic Books. However, the presence of insects in movies is an old study, as a theme for some papers
in the past (e.g. MERTINS, 1986; LESKOSKY & BERENBAUM, 1988; BERENBAUM &
LESKOSKY, 1992).
Movies have been, since the beginning of last century, one of the most important people’s
hobbies, being a good media to produce information and to transmit it to a big audience. Insects and
other arthropods appear on the screen since the creation of movies, especially by the beginning of the
century XX. A good example is the demonstration of the behavior of a domestic fly on a mute British
short movie released in 1910, “The Acrobatic Fly” (also known as “The Balancing Bluebottle”),
showing to the audience the fly’s ability to hold small objects. The eminent success of this type of
movie led the director F. Percy Smith to produce another short documentary movie about insects
holding objects with their legs: “The Strength and Agility of Insects”, released in 1911.
This paper aims to do a survey of movies and TV series where arthropods participate of the
main plot from all times, including movies to be released in 2015. The analyses included featured
films, short films, animated feature films, animated shorts films and live action TV series. We decided
to exclude documentaries and animated TV series to delimitate the scope of our analysis.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The main source for the present study was the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) website and
some blogs specialized on movies. The classification of groups of Arthropoda followed ZHANG
(2013) and the films and series were classified according to:
1) Genre (Science Fiction, Horror, Animation, Action, Short Etc.),
2) Taxonomic classification to the most specific level as possible
3) How arthropods are exploited in the productions (alien, super-hero, gigantic, mutant etc.)
4) Year of Production
5) Country of Production
6) Media (Cinema, TV Movie, TV Series or Internet)
Only movies and TV series where arthropods were part of the main plot were included in our
tables and analyses and TV animated cartoons were excluded from our research.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A significant number of movies/TV series were produced in the XXI century, over ½ of total,
in the last 14 years. Seventeen countries have produced movies based on insects so far, where only
three countries of them have co-productions (Mexico, Netherlands and Romania). 70% of the titles
were movies produced to be released in the theaters, 25.5% are TV Movies, 4% are TV Series and one
single movie was only released on YouTube (0.5%).
For taxonomic classification (Table 1), 15 orders of arthropods were identified, belonging to
177 movies and TV series (see attached table). From the total, 9 productions were inspired by more
than one insect, 4 productions had insects and arachnids as inspiration, 3 productions were inspired by
unidentified maggots and 8 productions had fictional alien arthropods in the main plot. Among the
orders of arthropods, Hymenoptera was the most diverse with three different groups of taxa (ants,
bees and wasps).
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Table - 1: Taxonomic diversity of Arthropods in movies and TV series.
Number of
Productions
Scorpiones
7
Solifugae
1
Chelicerata
Arachnida
Araneae
34
Ixodida
1
Chilopoda
2
Myriapoda
Diplopoda
1
1
Isopoda
Crustacea Malacostraca
Decapoda Pleocyemata Brachyura
2
Odonata
2
Arthropoda
Ensifera
3
Orthoptera
Caelifera
5
Mantodea
4
Blattodea
11
Hexapoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
47
Coleoptera
8
Lepidoptera
9
Diptera
15
Siphonaptera
1
Phylum
Subphylum
Class
Order
Suborder
Infraorder
Movies/TV series were influenced by the following taxa of arthropods, which composed the
main plot: Hexapoda - Order Hymenoptera (47 productions), Order Diptera (15), Order Blattodea
(11), Order Lepidoptera (9), Coleoptera (8), Order Mantodea (4), Order Odonata (2), Order
Siphonaptera (1), Order Orthoptera (Suborder Caelifera with 5 and Suborder Ensifera with 3
productions); Cheliceromorpha - Order Araneae (34), Order Scorpiones (7), Solifugae (1), Ixodida
(1); Crustacea - Infra-Order Brachyura (2), Order Isopoda (1); Myriapoda - Class Chilopoda (2),
Class Diplopoda (1).
In relation to taxonomic categories included in the orders, it is important to notice that from
46 productions within Hymenoptera, 23 are inspired by bees, 17 by ants (family Formicidae) and 7 by
wasps (family Vespidae). About spiders, from 34 exclusive productions, in only one a genus
(Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 - Theridiidae) was identified, a black-widow of the movie “Curse of
the Black Widow” (1977) (Fig. 1). In Diptera, from 15 productions, in only one of them we can
recognize a family of flies, not because of morphological characteristics, but by the metaphor used to
create the character: the horsefly (Tabanidae) from the animated short “A Horsefly Fleas” (1947) (Fig.
2). About beetles, two families can be recognized. The first is Scarabaeidae and its sub-family of
rhino-beetles Dynastinae in four Japanese productions about super-heroes, “Juukou B-Fighter” (19951996), “B-Fighter Kabuto” (1996-1997) (Fig. 3), “Big Bad Beetleborgs” (1996-1998) and “Kabuto-O
Beetle” (2005), and one about a pre-historic monster “Godzilla vs. Megalon” (1973). The second is
Lampyridae, the firefly, in the Italian Thriller film “Phenomena” (1985).
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Figures 1–3: 1, Poster of the film “The Curse of the Black Widow”; 2, The metaphoric horsefly
of the animated short “A Horsefly Fleas”; 3, Scene of the series B-Fighter Kabuto showing the
inspiration of rhino beetles to the characters.
Movies and TV series consider the arthropods, especially insects, every creature with a
carapace and specific number of legs, not taking in consideration important structures like antenna
and mouth parts. Mostly on films exploiting gigantic creatures, important morphological features
sometimes are erroneously placed, like antenna on the head of spiders in some movies, even though
they do not really have. How a certain structure really works is another problem in some movies. For
example, how the chelicerae of a Mygalomorphae spider work, like in the movie “Tarantula!” (1955)
or how a compound eye really works, as a mosaic of images instead of a repetition of images like in
the movie “Empire of Ants” (1977) (Fig. 4).
In contrast, in many productions, morphological aspects are truly considered and the
presented arthropods are really close to the reality, mostly from movies that exploit infestation of
arthropods, mainly because many times multiple real arthropods are used in the productions, like the
1978 movie “The Swarm”, where they used live African bees in all the scenes by removing their
stingers, and the 1990 movie “Arachnophobia” (Fig. 5), where they used real spiders of different
species to simulate an attack to a town in the United States. On the other hand, even though
infestation movies are more propitious to respect morphological features, some disaster movies with
gigantic animals, respect such characteristics. In the 1957 movie “The Deadly Mantis” (Fig. 6) for
example, important features like raptorial front-legs, the most notable features of the order Mantodea,
is respected.
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Figures 4–6: 4, Poster of the movie “Empire of Ants”; 5, Poster of the movie “Arachnophobia”;
6, Scene of the movie “The Deadly Mantis” shows the raptorial front leg of the mantis, a correct
character of the order.
The identification and the relation of arthropods within the script and how they are exploited
in the productions are the main objective of this paper. Aside other type of productions like comedy
and thriller films, most of the productions showing insects as bad and problematic belong to the genre
horror (36 productions) and science fiction (69 productions) movies and series. 45 movies/series
explored the fear that people feel of arthropods by expressing them as gigantic evil creatures that must
be killed or overcome, 6 expressed this fear represented by gigantic pre-historic monsters (in Japan)
and 35 titles exploring the arthropods as deadly mutant creatures. The main part of those films were
produced in the 1950’s in the United States like “The Deadly Mantis”, “Tarantula” (1955) (Fig. 7),
“Earth vs. Spider” (1958), “Beginning of the End” (1957), “Them!” (1954), where they used to be
considered “B movies” but that after some time became famous, being considered as classic features,
and in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 2000’s in Japan in the so called kaiju (strange creature) movies like
“Mothra” (Fig. 8), “Godzilla vs. The Thing” and “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant
Monsters All-Out Attack”. However, after some decades in oblivion after the 1970’s, this type of
films started to be produced again in the United States, like “Centipede!” (2004) (Fig. 9), “Big Ass
Spider” (2013) (Fig. 10), “Spiders” (2013) (Fig. 11), “Lavalantula” (2015), and “Ice Spiders” (2007)
leveraged by the SyFy Channel on TV.
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Figures 7 – 10: 7, Poster of the movie “Tarantula!” showing an incorrect position of the
chelicera; 8, Scene of the Japanese movie “Mothra”, one of the most famous kaiju movies of all
times; 9, Poster of the movie “Centipede!”; 10, Scene of destruction from the movie “Big-Ass
Spider”; 11, Poster of the movie “Spiders”.
The fear that arthropods cause upon human also have been represented by infestation movies,
principally by social insects like bees and ants (Hymenoptera). 28 productions were included in this
category, from the 1930’s to 2010’s, and the distribution of productions throughout time is uniform,
where there is no decade with a high abundance in comparison with others. The last two categories of
productions that show arthropods as bad and harmful have mutant bugs represented by either
humanoid or genetically modified arthropods and unidentified aliens in the main plot. Our research
identified 36 and 7 productions respectively. All this fear is probably caused by the fact that many
arthropods are considered injurious, being related to diseases and because some of them use poison to
capture and kill their prey (RUPPERT & BARNES, 1996). An important feature present in many of
these productions is the metamorphosis/development of insects, where this can be seen in “The Fly”
(1986) (Fig. 12), where a man has his DNA modified by the DNA of a domestic fly, and he starts to
experience body changes, being transformed through metamorphosis into a giant fly, and in the movie
“Mosquito” (1995), where there is showed the life cycle of egg and adult, even though they forget to
demonstrate the stages between these two.
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Figure 12: Poster of the movie “The Fly”, one of the most important and famous movies based
on arthropods.
On the other hand, a few number of productions show arthropods as important and fearless.
Most of them are animated features (13 productions), animated shorts (20 productions) and super-hero
action movies and series (13 productions). About super-hero movies, only in Spider-Man productions
(2002, 2004, 2007, 2012, and 2014 in USA and 1978-1979 in Japan), based on Marvel characters,
there is an intrinsic participation of the arthropod, where the character Peter Parker is bitten by a
genetic modified spider and starts to present super-powers, given from the animal, like production of
silk, ability to climb walls and accurate senses. However, in other Japanese heroes inspired by insects,
like “Kamen Rider” (1971 – present) (Fig. 13), or in productions from the United States, like “AntMan” (2015), the characters are just inspired by insects, with no direct interaction.
Figure 13: The main character of the Japanese series “Kamen Rider”, a super-hero based on a
grasshopper.
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On animated features and animated shorts, there is a clearly predominance, as much as in
infestation movies, of social insects, especially bees and ants (8 and 5 respectively), but other insects
like grasshoppers, crickets, flys, cockroaches and beetles are also represented. Among the arachnids,
spiders are the only group represented, mostly as villains, while the Subphylum Myriapoda was
represented by one ecological animated short. Other arthropods had low representativeness or had
secondary roles.
Main character insects are showed in the productions with anthropomorphic characters.
Therefore, they walk with an upright posture and have only two pairs of members, where the anterior
ones have hands and fingers to handle objects, and the posterior pair of members is used to walk
properly, with distinguishable feet, like the ants in the movie “Bug’s Life” (1998), On the other hand,
the villain grasshopper of this same production was represented by six legs and a lesser degree of
anthropomorphism. About the spiders, the reduction of the number of legs on the characters is not as
common as in the insects, but is possible, with no less than 3 pairs. Furthermore, the main part of the
arthropods in animated features have face, big eyes with eyelids, eyelashes and eyebrows, also with a
nose and mouth inspired from humans. This pattern occurs in many productions, mainly on Disney’s
shorts (especially the “Silly Symphonies” series). In some cases, there are insects with facial hair like
on the short “Bee on Guard” (1951) (Fig. 14) or a mouth with teeth seen on “Bee Movie” (2007) (Fig.
15). Other characters commonly found on these productions are the verbal language and the rational
thought. Few exceptions to this pattern can be found on the short movie “Swat the Fly” (1935), where
a fly is represented without any anthropomorphic trait, and on “There’s Something About a Soldier”
(1934) where mosquitos are represented with a low degree of anthropomorphism.
There are no diagnostic morphological characteristic for all insects in animation features,
although the main part of them have a pair of antenna and only one pair of wings, instead of two.
About Diplopoda, the lack of the second pair of legs on each segment of the millipede in the short
animated “The Millipede: How do I do What I Do?” (2009) is evident. Furthermore, there are some
characters that only represent a specific group of insects like the colour pattern and the sting in bees
and the elytra in beetles. Flies, mosquitos were represented without antenna, like in the animated short
“The Spider and the Fly” (1931). In other cases, the present insect had no morphological feature to
distinguish it, being only identified by the context it is inserted in, like in the animated shorts “An Itch
in Time” (1943) (Fig. 16) and “A Horsefly Fleas” (1947). About the spiders, the only recognizable
characteristic is the number of legs, always in more number in relation to the insects on the same
production. However, they were easily identified by the web-constructing behavior, whereas in one
production the chelicera is present, represented by a sharp tooth, also seen in “The Spider and the
Fly”.
The behavior is one of the most exploited characters among the arthropods in animated
productions. Most of the films that exploit social insects, the animals present sociable behavior, being
presented working together, in some cases with a clear caste division, like in the movie “Antz”
(1998). In relation to the bees, the pollen collection and honey production are well exploited
behaviors. Crickets and grasshoppers are represented mostly as musical characters, however sound
production is associated with some musical instrument instead of some stridulatory organ, like what is
seen in the animated short “The Grasshopper and the Ants” (1934) and in the Brazilian film “Happy
Cricket” (2001). Moths are represented by anthropomorphic characters and have the behavior of being
attracted by the warm light of candles in the short animated “Moth and the Flame” (1938) (Fig. 17).
Ecology is present in the movie “Bug’s Life”, where there is an alleged ecological mutualistic
association between ants and aphids where the queen ant has an aphid as a pet (Fig. 18) or the
association between the horsefly and a flea on “A Horsefly Fleas”. There is also an association
between behavior and ecology in the animated short “Mickey’s Garden” where Mickey, a mouse, and
Pluto, a dog, try to kill many species of insects in a garden. On the other hand, the insects
communicate between themselves using their antenna in order to survive and to feed from the garden.
Here, we can identify some different species of grasshoppers and juveniles of butterflies, besides
mosquitos of the family Culicidae, flies from the family Muscidae and beetles of the family
Lucanidae, a common family from the United States and Europe.
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Figures 14–18: 14, An anthropomorphic bearded bee of the animated short “Bee on Guard”; 15,
Poster of the film “Bee Movie” showing anthropomorphic bees; 16, Indistinguishable flea of the
animated short “An Itch in Time”; 17, The behavior of being attracted to the heat by a moth in
the short “Moth and the Flame”; 18, A queen ant and its pet aphid in the movie “Bug’s Life”.
CONCLUSIONS
Movies and series are, since the beginning of the XX century, one of the most productive
media, sharing and spreading information to all age groups, from kids to senior citizens. Therefore, as
the arthropods are in contact with humans in the daily-basis, naturally they are a good source of
information to be used on the screen. However, they are more likely to be used as villains or to be
considered bad and harmful, especially by the association of arthropods to diseases and death. Thus,
mainly in the 1950’s and in 2000’s, this association between the phylum and fear inspired
screenwriters and producers of many films.
Morphological characters of the arthropods shown the screen do not match with the reality in
most of the productions. In movies and series that show them as evil, some structures are highlighted
aside the big size of the animals, to increase the sensation of terror. In infestation movies, real animals
were used in many cases, approaching the situation to the real world, and in mutation movies
arthropods have their morphological characters mixed with human characters many times. On the
other hand, in animation productions, more realistic arthropods are used as the villains and more
anthropomorphic characters like facial hair, human eyes, hands and feet are used to approach the
heroes and main characters of the productions to the general public in order to cause affection. These
productions show them as good and respect ecological and behavior features.
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REFERENCES
1. BERENBAUM, M.R. & LESKOSKY, R.J. 1992. Life history strategies and populations biology
in science fiction films. Bull.Ecol.Soc.Am. 73: 236-240.
2. BERENBAUM, M.R. & LESKOSKY, R.J. 2003. Insects in movies. pp. 756-762. In Resh, V.H.
& R.T. Cardé (eds.), Encyclopedia of insects. Academia Press.
3. CHANTOURY-LACOMBE, F. 2009. “L’insectarium de l’histoire de l’art ou le pouvoir de
fascination de la peinture (Hommage à Daniel Arasse). Canadian Art Review 34.2: 20-27.
4. COELHO, J.R., 2000. Insects in Rock and Roll music. American Entomologist 46 (3): 186-200.
5. COELHO, J. R., 2004. Insects in Rock and Roll cover art. American Entomologist 50 (3): 142151.
6. DA-SILVA, E.R., COELHO, L.B.N., SANTOS, E.L.S., CAMPOS, T.R.M., MIRANDA, G.S.,
ARAÚJO, T.C. & CARELLI, A., 2014. Marvel and DC characters inspired by Insects. Reseatch
Expo International Multidisciplinary Research Journal 4 (3): 10 -36.
7. LESKOSKY, R.J. & BERENBAUM, M.R. 1988. Insects in animated films; not all “bugs” are
bunnies. Bull. Entomol. Soc. Am., 34: 55-63.
8. MARIÑO PÉREZ, R. & MENDOZA ALMERALLA, C., 2006. Los Insectos em el cine. Un
estudio preliminar. Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa 38: 415-421.
9. MERTINS, J.W.1986. Arthropods on the screen. Bull. Entomol. Soc. Am. 32: 85-90.
10. MONTESERRAT, V.J. 2009. Los artrópodos en la obra de Hieronymus Van Aken (El Bosco).
Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa 45: 589-615.
11. MONTESERRAT, V.J. 2011. Los artrópodos en la arte de Salvador Dalí. ). Boletín de la
Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa 49: 413-434.
12. RUPPERT, E. E. & BARNES, R.D. 1996. Zoologia dos invertebrados, 6th edition. São Paulo:
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Attached table: list of movies and TV series inspired by insects with production details, in
chronological order.
Title
Genre
Arthropod
Year
Country
Media
The Acrobatic Fly
Short
Fly
1910
United Kingdom
Cinema
The Strength and Agility of
Insects
Short
Insects
1911
United Kingdom
Cinema
The Spider and the Fly
Animated Short
Spider and Fly
1931
United States
Cinema
The Bears and the Bees
Animated Short
Bee
1932
United States
Cinema
Bugs in Love
Animated Short
Beetle
1932
United States
Cinema
City of Wax
Animated Short
Bee
1934
United States
Cinema
The King's Tailor
Animated Short
Bee
1934
United States
Cinema
The Grasshopper and the
Ants
Animated Short
Grasshopper
and Ant
1934
United States
Cinema
Yellow Jack
Drama
Mosquito
1934
United States
Cinema
There’s Something About a
Soldier
Animated Short
Mosquito
1934
United States
Cinema
Mickey's Garden
Animated Short
Insects
1935
United States
Cinema
Swat the Fly
Animated Short
Fly
1935
United States
Cinema
Moth and the Flame
Animated Short
Moth
1938
United States
Cinema
Mr. Bug goes to town
Animation
Grasshopper
1941
United States
Cinema
An Itch in Time
Animated Short
Flea
1943
United States
Cinema
Meatless Flyday
Animated Short
Spider and Fly
1944
United States
Cinema
The Gay Anties
Animation Short
Ant
1947
United States
Cinema
A Horsefly Fleas
Animated Short
Flea and
Horsefly
1947
United States
Cinema
Bumble Boogie
Animated Short
Bee
1948
United States
Cinema
Bee at the Beach
Animated Short
Bee
1950
United States
Cinema
Bee on Guard
Animated Short
Bee
1951
United States
Cinema
Let's Stick Together
Animated Short
Bee
1952
United States
Cinema
Mesa of Lost Women
Science Fiction
Spider
1953
United States
Cinema
Them!
Science Fiction
Ant
1954
United States
Cinema
The Naked Jungle
Adventure
Ant
1954
United States
Cinema
Tarantula!
Science Fiction
Spider
1955
United States
Cinema
Attack of the Crab Monsters
Science Fiction
Crab
1957
United States
Cinema
The Black Scorpion
Science Fiction
Scorpion
1957
United States
Cinema
Beginning of the End
Science Fiction
Grasshopper
1957
United States
Cinema
The Deadly Mantis
Science Fiction
Mantis
1957
United States
Cinema
Monster from Green Hell
Science Fiction
Wasp
1957
United States
Cinema
Earth vs the Spider
Science Fiction
Spider
1958
United States
Cinema
Missile to the Moon
Horror
Spider
1958
United States
Cinema
The Strange World of Planet
X/Cosmic Monsters
Science Fiction
Insects and
Arachnids
1958
United Kingdom
Cinema
The Fly
Science Fiction
Fly
1958
United States
Cinema
The Tingler
Horror
Centipede
1959
United States
Cinema
Return of the Fly
Science Fiction
Fly
1959
United States
Cinema
The Wasp Woman
Science Fiction
Wasp
1959
United States
Cinema
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Horrors of Spider Island
Horror
Spider
1960
Germany
Cinema
Mothra
Science Fiction
Moth
1961
Japan
Cinema
Godzilla vs. The Thing
Science Fiction
Moth
1964
Japan
Cinema
The Deadly Bees
Horror
Bee
1966
United Kingdom
Cinema
Curse of the Fly
Science Fiction
Fly
1966
United Kingdom
Cinema
Destroy All Monsters
Science Fiction
Moth
1968
Japan
Cinema
The Blood Beast Terror
Horror
Moth
1968
United Kingdom
Cinema
The Hellstrom Chronicle
Science Fiction
Insects
1971
United States
Cinema
Invasion of the Bee Girls
Horror
Bee
1973
United States
Cinema
Godzilla vs. Megalon
Science Fiction
Rhino Beetle
1973
Japan
Cinema
A Very Merry Cricket
Animation
Cricket
1973
United States
TV
Killer Bees
Horror
Bee
1974
United States
TV
Phase IV
Science Fiction
Ant
1974
United States
Cinema
Locusts
Horror
Grasshopper
1974
United States
TV
The Giant Spider Invasion
Science Fiction
Spider
1975
United States
Cinema
Bug
Science Fiction
Cockroach
1975
United States
Cinema
The Savage Bees
Horror
Bee
1976
United States
TV
Kiss of the Tarantula
Horror
Spider
1976
United States
Cinema
Kingdom of the Spiders
Horror
Spider
1977
United States
Cinema
Tarantulas: The Deadly
Cargo
Horror
Spider
1977
United States
TV
Curse of the Black Widow
Horror
Spider Latrodectus
1977
United States
TV
Empire of the Ants
Science Fiction
Ant
1977
United States
Cinema
Ants!
Horror
Ant
1977
United States
TV
The Bees
Science Fiction
Bee
1978
United States / Mexico
Cinema
The Swarm
Science Fiction
Bee
1978
United States
Cinema
Katy Caterpillar
Animation
Butterfly
(Caterpillar)
1984
Spain / Mexico
Cinema
Gallavants
Animation
Ant
1984
United States
Cinema
Phenomena
Thriller
Firefly and Fly
1985
Italy
Cinema
Fly
1986
United States / Canada /
United Kingdom
Cinema
The Fly
Science Fiction
Evil Spawn
Science Fiction
Alien
1987
United States
TV
The Nest
Science Fiction
Cockroach
1988
United States
Cinema
Meet the Applegates
Comedy
Mantis
1989
United States
Cinema
The Fly II
Science Fiction
Fly
1989
United States
Cinema
Arachnophobia
Horror
Spider
1990
United States
Cinema
Juke Bar
Animated Short
Cockroach
1990
Canada
TV
Peterchens Mondfahrt
Animation
Beetle
1990
Germany
Cinema
Cinema
Naked Lunch
Drama
Insects
1991
Canada / United Kingdom
/ Japan
Ticks
Science Fiction
Tick
1993
United States
Cinema
Skeeter
Science Fiction
Mosquito
1993
United States
Cinema
Deadly Invasion: The Killer
Bee Nightmare
Science Fiction
Bee
1995
United States
TV
Mosquito
Science Fiction
Mosquito
1995
United States
Cinema
The Wasp Woman
Science Fiction
Wasp
1995
United States
TV
Volume - III, Issue - I ● January - 2015
12
ISSN : 2320 – 1797
Vignettes of Research
Joe's Apartment
Comedy
Cockroach
1996
United States
Cinema
Starship Troopers
Science Fiction
Alien
1997
United States
Cinema
Bugged!
Comedy
Cockroach
1997
United States
Cinema
Mimic
Science Fiction
Cockroach
1997
United States
Cinema
Men in Black
Comedy
Cockroach
1997
United States
Cinema
Bug Buster
Comedy
Cockroach
1998
United States
Cinema
A Bug's Life
Animation
Ant
1998
United States
Cinema
Antz
Animation
Ant
1998
United States
Cinema
Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!
Horror
Ant
1998
United States
TV
Spiders
Science Fiction
Spider
2000
United States
Cinema
They Nest
Science Fiction
Cockroach
2000
United States / Canada
TV
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
Science Fiction
Dragonfly
2000
Japan
Cinema
Proboscis
Horror
Mosquito
2000
United States
TV
Flying Virus
Science Fiction
Bee
2001
United States / Brazil
Cinema
Earth vs the Spider
Science Fiction
Spider
2001
United States
Cinema
Arachnid
Science Fiction
Spider
2001
Spain
Cinema
Spiders II: Breeding Ground
Science Fiction
Spider
2001
United States
Cinema
Mimic 2
Science Fiction
Cockroach
2001
United States
Cinema
The Mummy Returns
Adventure
Scorpion
2001
United States
Cinema
Tail Sting
Science Fiction
Scorpion
2001
United States
Cinema
Happy Cricket
Animation
Cricket
2001
Brazil
Cinema
Godzilla, Mothra and King
Ghidorah: Giant Monsters
All-Out Attack
Science Fiction
Moth
2001
Japan
Cinema
Killer Bees!
Action
Bee
2002
Canada
TV
Eight Legged Freaks
Comedy
Spider
2002
United States / Australia
Cinema
Spider-Man
Adventure
Spider
2002
United States
Cinema
Infested
Science Fiction
Wasp
2002
United States
Cinema
Arachnia
Science Fiction
Spider
2003
United States
Cinema
Webs
Science Fiction
Spider
2003
United States
Cinema
Mimic: Sentinel
Science Fiction
Cockroach
2003
United States
Cinema
Deadly Stingers
Horror
Scorpion
2003
United States
Cinema
Bugs
Science Fiction
Scorpion
2003
United States / Canada
TV
The Bone Snatcher
Horror
Ant
2003
United Kingdom/Canada
TV
Starship Troopers 2
Science Fiction
Alien
2004
United States
TV
The Spider Forest
Horror
Spider
2004
South Korea
Cinema
Creepies
Science Fiction
Spider
2004
United States
Cinema
Spider-Man 2
Adventure
Spider
2004
United States
Cinema
Centipede!
Action
Centipede
2004
United States
TV
Monster Island
Horror
Ant
2004
United States
TV
Erik of het klein
insectenboek
Adventure
Insects
2004
Belgium / Netherlands
Cinema
Killer Bees
Horror
Bee
2005
Japan
Cinema
Kabuto-O Beetle
Action
Beetle
2005
Japan
Cinema
Stinger
Horror
Scorpion
2005
United States / Sweden
Cinema
Volume - III, Issue - I ● January - 2015
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ISSN : 2320 – 1797
Vignettes of Research
Glass Trap
Action
Ant
2005
United States
TV
Locusts: The 8th Plague
Horror
Grasshopper
2005
United States
TV
Insecticidal
Horror
Insects and
Arachnids
2005
Canada
Cinema
Larva
Science Fiction
Maggot
2005
United States / Germany
TV
Mansquito
Science Fiction
Mosquito
2005
United States
TV
Swarmed
Science Fiction
Wasp
2005
Canada
TV
Caved In: Prehistoric Terror
Horror
Beetle
2006
United States/Canada
TV
Scorpius Gigantus
Action
Scorpion
2006
United States
TV
The Ant Bully
Animation
Ant
2006
United States
Cinema
Slither
Science Fiction
Maggot
2006
United States
Cinema
Final Days of Planet Earth
Horror
Mantis
2006
United States
TV
Bee Movie
Animation
Bee
2007
United States / Australia
Cinema
Black Swarm
Horror
Bee
2007
Canada
TV
The Mist
Horror
Alien
2007
United States
Cinema
Ice Spiders
Horror
Spider
2007
United States / Germany
TV
In the Spider's Web
Science Fiction
Spider
2007
United States
TV
Spider-Man 3
Adventure
Spider
2007
United States
Cinema
Italian Spiderman
Action
Spider
2007
Australia
Youtube
Destination: Infestation
Science Fiction
Ant
2007
Canada
TV
Killer Bees
Horror
Bee
2008
Germany
TV
The Secret Life of Bees
Drama
Bee
2008
United States
Cinema
Starship Troopers 3:
Marauder
Science Fiction
Alien
2008
United States
TV
The Hive
Horror
Ant
2008
United States
TV
Superhero Movie
Comedy
Dragonfly
2008
United States
Cinema
Fly me to the Moon
Animation
Fly
2008
Belgium
Cinema
Infestation
Action
Alien
2009
United States
Cinema
High Plains Invaders
Science Fiction
Alien
2009
Canada / Romania
TV
King Crab Attack
Short
Crab
2009
France
TV
The Happy Cricket and the
Giant Bugs
Animation
Cricket
2009
Brazil
Cinema
The Thaw
Science Fiction
Maggot
2009
United States / Canada
Cinema
The Millipede: How do I do
What I Do?
Animated Short
Millipede
2009
United States
TV
Hutch the Honeybee
Animation
Bee
2010
Japan
Cinema
The Great Indian Butterfly
Drama
Butterfly
2010
India
Cinema
Mothman
Horror
Moth
2010
United States
TV
1313: Giant Killer Bees!
Science Fiction
Bee
2011
United States
Cinema
Camel Spiders
Science Fiction
Camel Spider
2011
United States
TV
Arachnoquake
Science Fiction
Spider
2012
United States
TV
The Amazing Spider-Man
Adventure
Spider
2012
United States
Cinema
The Bay
Horror
Isopod
2012
United States
Cinema
Eega
Fantasy
Fly
2012
India
Cinema
Dragon Wasps
Science Fiction
Wasp
2012
United States
TV
Big Ass Spider!
Science Fiction
Spider
2013
United States
Cinema
Volume - III, Issue - I ● January - 2015
14
ISSN : 2320 – 1797
Vignettes of Research
Spiders
Science Fiction
Spider
2013
United States
Cinema
Enemy
Thriller
Spider
2013
United States
Cinema
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Adventure
Spider
2014
United States
Cinema
Lavalantula
Horror
Spider
2015
United States
TV
Ant Man
Adventure
Ant
2015
United States
Cinema
Stung
Horror
Wasp
2015
United States
TV
Kamen Rider
Action
Grasshopper
1971 - today
Japan
TV Series
Spider-Man
Adventure
Spider
1978-1979
Japan
TV Series
M.A.N.T.I.S.
Science Fiction
Mantis
1994-1995
United States
TV Series
Juukou B-Fighter
Action
Beetle
1995-1996
Japan
TV Series
B-Fighter Kabuto
Action
Beetle
1996-1997
Japan
TV Series
Big Bad Beetleborgs
Action
Beetle
1996-1998
Japan
TV Series
The Bigbugs
Comedy
Insects
1998-2000
Israel
TV Series
Volume - III, Issue - I ● January - 2015
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