Blackout Insect Fair

Views on the fair

I was visiting some friends in Osaka, Japan, in august and a good friend of mine, Zakki, invited me to come with him to Blackout Insect fair in Aichi Pref. Getting the chance to se huge amounts of living insects is like a six in the lottery, so I agreed. As Aichi Pref. is about 5 hours car ride from Osaka, we had to start at midnight and met before at Zakki´s shop to pack up stock for the fair. Something that seemed funny to me, was that all the cheaper species, like small sized Japanese Lucanidae, were packed for a kind of lottery. It works like a normal lottery, you buy a ticket and get something out. Surprisingly, on the insect fair many shops did that and a lot of money was made through these lotteries (many children were customers here). After we arrived on the fair in the morning and finished building up Zakki´s stall, I got some break time to walk around and have a look..

I have to admit, I never in my whole life saw that many insects in one place, not to mention the sizes, the colours and different species offered. The average size was huge, most of the Dynastes hercules were over 14cm, Megasoma ssp, over 10, and Dorcus hopei was over 6 cm, just to name a few examples. The next thing I realized was that I could not afford anything over there, the prizes were too high. So, for instance one larvae of Dynastes hercules bleuzeni cost 10000USD (that would be travelling for a year, ha-ha)

I found it very nice that Japanese seem to have all species of Lamprima in their breedings, I managed to see L. adolphinae, L. aurata, L. tasmanica, L. latreillei, L. aenea. The two species mentioned first are comparatively cheap, except, for colour variations, like blue males, which are really really striking.

Euchirius dupontianus, a big male. In Europe, even deadstock of that species is a rarity...

I was astonished, when I found out, that Cheirotonus jahnsoni (huge size as well), Cheirotonus macleayi, Propomacrus bimucronatus and Euchirius dupontianus (WOW) were offered as well. Concerning Lucanidae, either maximum size or the shape of the mandibles (especially in Dorcus curvidens ssp) were the things people seemed to be the most interested in. A few shops had different eye coloured beetles. It seems to be a new trend, that after some time of inbreeding, sometimes the breeder manages to get different eye colours in his beetles. It seems that for beetles that is the only kind of albinism that you can get. It seems only eyes are concerned, whereas the body colour stays the same. I saw pink, blue, green (wow) and white eyes in Dorcus curvidens spec. There was somebody showing me a picture of pink eyed Alomyrina dichotoma as well. Again, a new trend from Japan, ha-ha.

I found it strange that there was almost no Cetonidae offered, mostly Dynastinae and Lucanidae were offered. In my whole life, I never saw that many Dynastes hercules in one spot. Many newly described subspecies have been offered there, like Dynastes hercules trinidadensis, D. h. morishimai, D. h. bleuzeni, D. h. spec. Cuba, D. h. tuxtlaensis, and of course, more common subspecies like D.h. hercules, D. h. occidentalis, D.h. ecuatorianus, etc. An interesting sight was a pair of a Mexican Dynastes, nobody was sure about whether it was D. hyllus, or D. hercules tuxtlaensis, or a new species...Just to mention, they were offering all other species of Dynastes as well, I saw Dynastes hyllus, Dynastes granti, Dynastes maya, Dynastes satanas, Dynastes tytius, Dynastes neptunus etc. It seems that Japanese are crazy about aberrations, that might explain why blue Dynastes hercules hercules from Colombia (of course being from that dangerous collecting site, upped the price, ha-ha) were really high prized and looked for. Of course, all bigger species of Megasoma were offered as well, like Megasoma elephas elephas and M. e. occidentalis (the more rare Mexican subspecies), Megasoma acteaon, Megasoma janus, Megasoma ramirezorum, Megasoma punctulatus and I cannot really remember if there was a pair of Megasoma joergensi offered . I was quite astonished to see that there were many Goloffas offered as well, whereas that species in Europe is scarcely bred.

Dynastes hercules lychi, a blue- white male from Colombia, 145mm.

Being European, I really was surprised to see that on an insect fair in Japan, deep in Asia, there are Lucanus cervus cervus imagines (alive!!) from France for sale. Their size was about 70-75 mm, haha, I was really surprised. Apart from Lucanus laetus, a small species from China, which you could get larvae of as cheap as 100USd per larvae (Just kidding..), this species was the only of the Genus Lucanus that was offered. I think this is not due to minor demand for that species, rather than the weakness of Lucanus in higher temperatures and the general difficulties in keeping and breeding. It seems, that at the moment, Lucanus canthori, Lucanus lunifer, the big subspecies of L. cervus, and all Myanmar Lucanidae, are really searched for by breeders.

I think, at the moment, Japanese are mostly interested in Dynastinae and Lucanidae, having some kind of competition who breeds the biggest and the weirdest aberrations, with a main point on Dorcus and Dynastes and a few others. In addition to that, some of the common species, such as Chalcosoma etc., have had some kind of Renaissance, due to a very popular card game, which brought children's interest to insects.

It really was a big fun to be on that Blackout Insect Fair, in the end I even got personally invited to that fair, by the guy who arranged all that, being the only white skinned European, haha.

Thank you again, Zakki, even though I am spoilt for European insect fairs now, haha.

I attached all the pics I made as links, otherwise loading might take too long.

I hope you enjoyed reading this short list, any questions, please feel free to ask: Benjamin Harink

Allotopus rosenbergi

Augosoma centaurus

Hundreds Chalcosoma atlas (Lottery)

Chalcosoma caucasus (120mm)

Cheirotonus jansoni huge 1

Cheirotonus jansoni huge 2

Cheirotonus jansoni huge 3

Cheirotonus macleayi formosanus 1

Cheirotonus macleayi formosanus 2