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It seems to be a large insect:

In his book The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that Lucas likely got the word "Sith" from Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. In Appendix C of the book, Kaminski writes:

Some other likely inspirations from Burroughs can be seen on this page (and also see this answer which links to a New York Times interview in which Lucas seems to confirm that the word "Jedi" was inspired by the word "Jed" for Martian Lords in Burroughs). Kaminski notes that when writing the original Star Wars, Lucas did a lot of research into old science fiction and fantasy works, including Burroughs, and quotes pages 141-142 of Dale Pollock's 1983 book Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas which says:

As Richard notes in a comment, the word "Sith" does appear in some early script drafts from the period when we would have been doing that research, like this draft from 1974 (other outlines and drafts including the word are mentioned in Kaminski's book as well).

And p. 16 of The Making of Star Wars provides what looks like a contemporary quote from Lucas about Burroughs as an influence:

It seems to be a large insect:

In his book The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that Lucas likely got the word "Sith" from Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. In Appendix C of the book, Kaminski writes:

Some other likely inspirations from Burroughs can be seen on this page (and also see this answer which links to a New York Times interview in which Lucas seems to confirm that the word "Jedi" was inspired by the word "Jed" for Martian Lords in Burroughs). Kaminski notes that when writing the original Star Wars, Lucas did a lot of research into old science fiction and fantasy works, including Burroughs, and quotes pages 141-142 of Dale Pollock's 1983 book Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas which says:

As Richard notes in a comment, the word "Sith" does appear in some early script drafts from the period when we would have been doing that research, like this draft from 1974 (other outlines and drafts including the word are mentioned in Kaminski's book as well).

And p. 16 of The Making of Star Wars provides what looks like a contemporary quote from Lucas about Burroughs as an influence:

Some other likely inspirations from Burroughs can be seen on this page (and also see this answer which links to a New York Times interview in which Lucas seems to confirm that the word "Jedi" was inspired by the word "Jed" for Martian Lords in Burroughs). Kaminski notes that when writing the original Star Wars, Lucas did a lot of research into old science fiction and fantasy works, including Burroughs, and quotes pages 141-142 of Dale Pollock's 1983 book Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas which says:

Some other likely inspirations from Burroughs can be seen on this page (and also see this answer which links to a New York Times interview in which Lucas seems to confirm that the word "Jedi" was inspired by the word "Jed" for Martian Lords in Burroughs). Kaminski notes that when writing the original Star Wars, Lucas did a lot of research into old science fiction and fantasy works, including Burroughs, and quotes pages 141-142 of Dale Pollock's 1983 book Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas which says:

And p. 16 of The Making of Star Wars provides what looks like a contemporary quote from Lucas about Burroughs as an influence:

"I've done a lot of reading for this picture. It's not really research so much as mythology and fantasy are taking over my life. I read everything from John Carter of Mars to The Golden Bough, so obviously all of that influences you in a certain way. I'm trying to make a classic genre picture, a classic space opera—and there are certain concepts that have been developed by writers, primarily Edgar Rice Burroughs, that are traditional, and you keep those traditional aspects about the project."