Part 4

Human-faced Cockroaches

Cockroaches are one of the oldest insect orders with a fossil history extending back more than 300 million years. There are 3500-4000 known species worldwide of which only a few are troublesome to people. Some of the large cockroaches such as the Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) and the Giant Cave Cockroach (Blaberus giganteus) are used as pets and sold at pet stores and shops of commercial roach breeders in the United States, England, Japan and other countries. They are also bred as food for pricier pet reptiles.

Giant cockroach fossil (Collection, Museum of World Oddities, Florida)

The most famous cockroach with the human face on its thorax is True Death Head Cockroach (Blaberus craniifer) and its taxidermy is quite popular among collectors. Nevertheless, there are several additional species of cockroaches that produce human faces (often very clearly) on their thoraxes. Examples of them are Giant Peppered Cockroach (Archimandrita tesselata), Giant Cave Cockroach (Blaberus giganteus), Discoid Cockroach (Blaberus Discoid), Orange Head cockroach (Eublaberus prosticus), Lobster Cockroach (Nauphoeta cinerea), etc. These tropical cockroaches are kept as pets (easy to care for by children) and sold at pet insect stores in America today. Some of these fascinating-looking animals in terrariums are on display for public viewing (and for sale) at the gift shop of Takeshi Yamada’s Museum of World Wonders.

True Death Head Cockroach (Blaberus craniifer) from Cuba, taxidermy

Giant Cave Cockroach (Blaberus giganteus) taxidermy

Two examples of human-faced Orange Head Cockroaches (Eublaberus prosticus) taxidermy

Lobster Cockroach (Nauphoeta cinerea) taxidermy

For many years, Takeshi Yamada wrote and published dozens of extensive articles on web sites in England and America about breeding tropical large pet roaches. See following web sites for more information on this.

http://www.hissingcockroach.com/t1.htm

http://www.insectshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?board=cockroaches

http://forums.insecthobbyist.com/forum.php?catid=10#17160

http://forum.insecthobbyist.com/roaches/index_a.html

Note: A number of American movies have featured cockroaches in major roles. Human-faced giant cockroaches that attacked people were the subject of the science fiction movie “Mimic” (1997). Lively, animated, singing, happy cockroaches were featured in the musical “Joe’s Apartment” (1996). A huge, fierce, cockroach-like, alien was the villain of “Men in Black” (1997), and fire-generating giant cockroaches menaced the populace in “Bug” (1975). Interestingly, this last film’s Japanese title is “Moeru konchu gundan” (“A Military Force Made of Firing Insects”). Yamada wrote an extensive critical article on this movie. Movie posters and stills from “Bug” are displayed in this section of the exhibition at the museum.

Reasons why and how some insects have human-faces

Everything happens for a reason --- here is a list of reasons why and how these curious-looking insects came to existence (according to Takeshi Yamada). 

The following reasons might have been cited by an accomplished first-class doctor (such as Paracelsus or Ambrose Paré) in the 16th century.

1. Glory of God

2. Wrath of God

3. Acts of Demons/Devils

4. Your imagination (commonly known Extra Sensory Perception or ESP) projected on the insect to cause its physical transformation.

5.  Environment where the insects were born. More human-faced insects were born in big cities than small towns by mimicking human form.

6. Mixture or mingling of seed. An insect fed on or touched spilled human sperm and became human-faced insects. (Centaurs were believed to be born by mixing human and horse.)

7. Artificial manipulation through human intervention.

The following reasons might be given by a high priest of mainstream Japanese Buddhism. A similar concept can be found in Shintoism (Japan), Hinduism (India), Taoism (China), and Confucianism (China).

8. Law of Karma. There are three kinds of Law of Karma:

8A) Individual Karma: A person was granted a body of an insect in this life based on his/her actions in previous lives.

 Shuku-go is another name for this Karma.

8B) Family’s Karma: A person was granted a body of an insect in this life based on actions of his/her parents their current and/or previous lives. Oya-no-inga is another name of this Karma.

8C) Nation’s Karma: A person was granted a body of an insect in this lifetime based on a crime committed by his/her nation under the leadership of an evil person. So-bachi is another name of this Karma.

Note: The law of Karma is featured in much Asian literature. A Japanese novel Kumo-no-ito (String of Spider) by Ryonosuke Akutagawa is required reading in modern Japanese elementary schools. In this novel, Buddha in heaven tries to save the life of Kandata, (who suffers in the Pond of Blood in Hell) by sending a string of spider so that he could use it as a rope for his escaping from there. Buddha’s mercy is prompted by his remembrance of this criminal’s good deed -- Kandata once spared the life of a spider. In this story, the spider is like an angel trying to save a human life as ordered by Buddha – who is one with the ultimate reality of the universe. (Buddhism teaches universe was born from Buddha Consciousness, NOT created by an external entity called Creator.)

The following reasons might be offered by a person with university degrees and knowledge of modern biology.

9.    Natural state creation by nature (not by God or Demons/Devils). Some human-faced insects occur naturally under normal conditions with their shapes, forms, colors, designs and patterns.

10. Deformity. In this case, the specimen looks somewhat or completely different from its parents.

10A) Genetic mutation. In biology, mutations are changes to the genetic material (usually DNA or RNA). Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division and by exposure to mutagens (radiation, chemicals), or viruses. They can also be deliberately made to occur under cellular control during processes such as meiosis or hypermutation.

10B) Damage to the reproductive organs

10C) Complications at birth

10D) A growth or hormone disorder

10E) Healing of the body following a severe injury e.g. burn injury.

10F) Hormonal changes.

10G) Bacteria and virus infections.

10H) Accidental injuries during the final molt before the adult body hardens.

10I) Scars produced during the natural course of life. (Many adult male beetles are marked in fights for territory and females. Scars can also result from attacks by larger animals such as birds, mice etc.)

11. Environment where the insects were born; Natural Selection. Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with unfavorable traits. Natural selection is a cornerstone of modern biology. The term was introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book The Origin of Species. Under this premise – human propensity to kill normal insects but leave human-faced insects alone would account for the survival of more human-faced insects.

Entomophagy

Before closing this article, the author wishes to write about the very popular section of the insect exhibition entitled “Art of Entomophagy” at Takeshi Yamada’s Museum of World Wonders.

Entomophagy is the eating of insects by people throughout the world, including the museum president’s home country, Japan. Over 1,200 species of insects, sources of precious protein, are consumed as a regular part of cultural cuisine in many parts of the world, including Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Conversely, it is also uncommon and even considered taboo in some societies.

According to Takeshi Yamada, in Japan where rice is the main diet, Inago (rice field grasshopper) is considered a protein-rich food source. Yamada’s mother and her school mates ate roasted Inago as a snack. The taste is somewhat similar to dried shrimp. (This is not surprising, given that they are both arthropods and biologically very closely related.) Cooked and packaged Inago is also sold in Japan as a delicacy. Insects, earthworms, spiders, and other exotic and pricey dishes are also served at pricy Japanese restaurants under the general term Getemono-ryori (curious, odd and rare dishes) in Japan today.

(From left to right) “Inago Kanro-ni” (sweet roasted rice field grasshoppers) (Japan)

Canned insects (China), Pickled Bamboo Worms (Thailand), Roasted Insects (Thailand)

Actual bug foods such as cricket candy, ant candy, scorpion candy, pickled bamboo worms, canned mole crickets, roasted giant black scorpions, canned giant water bugs, and canned silkworm pupae can be purchased at the gift shop here. A variety of books, magazines, newsletters, artworks, and academic publications about entomophagy are also available for purchase.

“King Tarantula”, fine art photograph print by Takeshi Yamada, 2004.

Yamada designed over 70 Coney Island brand exotic canned food labels as artworks.

For more information about Yamada’s Coney Island brand exotic canned foods, see following web sites.

http://sideshowworld.com/TYConeyCans.html

http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

END

Disclaimer: This literature was written in the style and format of 16th century scholastic zoological books. One such distinguished book is On Monsters and Marvels by Ambrose Paré. Paré was chief surgeon to both Charles IX and Henri III, and is considered the best physician and true Renaissance man in the 16th century. This literature was also produced in the time honored traditional, inspirational and entertaining manner of the American circus sideshow and Dime Museum. For these reasons, despite the best efforts of the author, some of the visual and textual information contained in this article many be fictional, and in such cases, any resemblance to real life subject matter is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada, September 2006. Revised May 2007.

Museum of World Wonders in Coney Island.  E-mail: yamada108@aol.com

Special thanks to Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, Maremi Kakushina, Abraham Morris, and Deborah Zingale.

Takeshi Yamada © 2007 Copyright all rights reserved

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