A. atropos appears in popular media, including the films The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Dracula (1958), and The Blood Beast Terror (1967).

Annually, A. atropos migrates to parts of Great Britain, most numerously to the British Isles, where it is less commonly seen than in its native place of residency.

[7] The caterpillar of the African death's-head hawkmoth is also sturdy and somewhat variable in colour, being some shade of buff, green or brown, with seven diagonal blue lines.

[8] Acherontia atropos receives both its species and genus names from bodies relating to death or dark subjects.

[10] In mythology, Acheron was thought to be a pathway that lead to the Underworld due to the large, dark gorges it flowed through.

[11] Sometimes the young generation appears even above the Arctic Circle, e.g. in northern Sweden (68°12’21.3”N 21°50’18.1”E) on 6 September 2019, after an exceptionally warm summer.

In contrast, Acherontia species and certain relatives bear a posterior horn embossed with round projections about the thicker part.

The newly hatched larva starts out light green with yellow stripes diagonally on the sides, but darken after feeding.

[11] In spite of the fact that Acherontia atropos is perfectly harmless except as a minor pest to crops and to beehives,[13] the fancied skull pattern has burdened the moth with a negative reputation, such as associations with the supernatural and evil.

There are numerous superstitions to the effect that the moth brings bad luck to the house into which it flies, and that death or misfortune may be expected to follow.

More prosaically, in South Africa at least, uninformed people have claimed that the moth has a poisonous, often fatal, sting (possibly referring mainly to the proboscis, but sometimes to the horn on the posterior of the larva).

[14] It appeared in The Hireling Shepherd, in Bram Stoker's Dracula and in films such as Un Chien Andalou and the promotional marquee posters for The Silence of the Lambs.

The death's-head moth is mentioned in Susan Hill's Gothic horror novel I'm the King of the Castle, as it is used to instill fear in one of the young protagonists.

John Keats mentioned the moth as a symbol of death in his "Ode to Melancholy": "Make not your rosary of yew-berries, / Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be / Your mournful Psyche".

[15] In José Saramago's novel Death with Interruptions, Acherontia atropos appears on the American edition's cover, and is a topic that two characters mull over.