Note 233 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 9)
Reading edition
Nanisheʹonon for Neʹ hanisʻheʹonoⁿʼ signifies “He who dwells in the earth, or in the ground,” and it is the name of the muckworm, the larva of the scarabæid beetle (Ligyrus relictus). The name being that applied to the Christian concept of Satan, the story-teller here endows the larva with the character of Satan, based solely on the etymology of the term.