The Manfly:
Are you ready for some hardcore mythology 'cause this one's a doozy. In the original book of Exodus, the last and most devastating plague which God brought upon Egypt was the plague of locusts. Egypt was left without any food and thanks to sand storms and strong tidal currents which were two previous plagues they were unable to import any from their neighboring countries. By this point the plagues were cheered by the Israelites rather than loathed as they could see that the Egyptians were struggling and their mighty empire was crumbling. The Egyptians had also became afraid of hurting the Israelites in case another more devastating plague would befall them and had begun to beg the Pharoah to let the Israelites leave with some even attempting to end the Pharoah's life for the sake of their own family. Knowing that he was losing his power the Pharoah was enraged and ordered his wizards to find a locust so that he could prove how primal and dangerous they are and therefore not worth worshiping. Prior to this event an Egyptian who was angry his crops were getting destroyed by locusts caught one out of the air and was about to step on it when an Israelite child caught it and kept it from their Egyptian master. The Egyptian taken aback by the child's defiance beat the child but the child didn't let go. Eventually the Egyptian saw the stupidity in his actions when a crowd of onlooking Egyptians jeered and laughed at him for fighting over a locust and he let the child go. The locust had not go off unscathed however and had an injured leg and wing. The family of the child cared for the locust and gave it offering of their own food which was scarce and soon the locust was almost as good as new. However the wizards that had been looking for a locust and couldn't find one in the whole of Egypt heard about this pet and raided the house ceasing the locust. However when being carted off to prison the locust unable to chew through its own twine bindings chewed through the ropes of the family that cared for him and they escaped. Only interested in the locust however the wizards and their men did not pursue the escaping family. After pestering the locust with a stick to cause it to fight back and bite the stick they found that it wouldn't fight as it was under the instruction of God and would show no mean spirits to man. Desperate for a result the wizards used their magic to grow the locust to the size of a man and beat it with sticks but it still would not fight so they locked it away and starved it hoping it would become more primal. At this point however the Pharoah's wife an Israelite herself having heard of the locust's plight took pity on them and secretly gave them food and water. To her surprise she discovered that the insect could talk as it thanked her for her kindness. The locust also promised her one gift of her choosing. She asked that her only son was spared God's wrath and the locust agreed. Later Pharoah approached the wizards about how they were doing with the locust and finding a cowering creature he ordered it to be executed. The creature was tied down to wooden posts and left for the crows. As the Pharoah saw the crows cover the locust and begin pecking he proclaimed "What kind of god is this to destroy his own creations", only to discover that the crows were untying the ropes and the locust flew away unscathed. Locusts at the time were known as Angels of Death along with Crows and so when Moses predicted the angel's arrival he actually meant the locust himself followed by the crows that saved him. Sure enough later they returned to Egypt but not knowing which Egyptian child was the Pharoah's they took all the first born children and carried them away to later become one of the cities mentioned later in the bible. Later as the Israelites were fleeing Egypt they turned up to fan the flames of the burning carts the Israelites had left to block the path for the Egyptians and blew the sea miles to the south so the Israelites could cross. The original bible had a ton of weird creatures and events that the later generations adapted out of the books to make them easier to relate to.
Though only one locust is ever mentioned in the bible as being human size, the number of folklore tales about it has been constant ever since this story. Often a "manfly" seeing a woman mistreated by their jealous, abusive and adulterous husband waits til she is alone and gives her company promising to defend her. When the husband tries to attack her again the locust intervenes and fights the man causing him to run away in fear. However the story doesn't often have a good outcome for the locust as the man spreads lies about the locust being a man eating monster and stirs the towns people to chase the locust away often with them acquiring severe injuries to the eyes or legs. However the locust returns and the people rush to kill him before he proves the man's infidelity to the crowd turning them against the man. The man is then chased out of town or publicly executed and the locust is allowed to live among the people. Later the woman falls in love with the locust and becomes pregnant. However the woman often commits suicide or is killed by the towns people or a friend of the abusive lover from before. Her unborn children are then found alive by the locust who carries them away with him into the forest never to be seen again.
Manflies are known for being great lovers with males being very kind and caring and females being very flirtatious and exotic. They often pick their lovers carefully observing them from a distance and choose people who are unlucky in love by no fault of their own. A manfly's ultimate goal is to find a mate through which they can have offspring. It is often mentioned that the manfly too is unlucky in love and seeks a human mate as an intellectual equal or soul mate. Manflies can have children with any animal though they must be at least their size as the babies might grow too big for other animals to handle. Even so their mates are often subject to quite extreme though not harmful stretching as the babies grow to near adult size inside the host. It's worth noting that the prenancy generally has 2 stages. 1, where the baby grows from a tiny egg cell into a maggot the size of your fist and a second stage after they are born where the baby is swallowed orally where it grows to adult size inside the stomach feeding off the food the host eats seemingly immune to stomach acids. In this stage the host can be of either sex and in the case of manfly females they are often after a male to carry the young for them. Manflies often know exactly what their lover wants or needs and exactly how to act when around them, which makes the host fall in love with the manfly despite their appearance. In many stories they are regarded as being better than man especially where love is concerned and many often seek creative knowledge that humans have via observing art or reading poetry. Later there were many horror stories about manfly which according to the folklore lead to a massive mass killing of their race though in every single case these stories about their murderous rampages are spread by jealous lovers, which according to the original folklore was due to them attempting to disguise their own infidelity. In these stories the babies eat the host from the inside out and the manfly traps its lovers in a cocoon to prevent them from seeking help or trying to kill their unborn children. Sometimes the suicidal tendencies of its lover is due to a virus spread by inter-species mating or simply an ineffable stage of the pregnancy or simply because the lover doesn't want to die horribly in a later stage of the pregnancy. Though often stated that the locusts can't fly in the stories despite having wings it's often due to their wings being injured. Also despite much much later depictions of the story made to be sold for profit saying that the manfly have hypnotic powers of seduction, there is no evidence in folklore that the manfly did anything to tempt their lovers other than gentle persuasion by coming to their aid and appealing to their feelings. A manfly or their lover, whichever is the host, go through a very fast pregnancy that only lasts a few days or weeks and no matter what they mate with their children are almost guarnteed to be a manfly and not a cross breed, so much so that cross breeds are even seen as bizarre and freakish to manflies themselves and are normally the product of interferance from outside influences such as magic or rare and strange medicine.
Manflies are possibly the origins of some of the elements of Fairies in folklore and were the inspiration for the Xenomorphs in the Aliens franchise who are believed to be manfly and human cross breeds.
