boxed insect figures (unknown manufacturer)

[bmathison1972]

This is the review of a set (complete?) of small, stylized boxed insects from an unknown Japanese manufacturer. I bought them from Beetle Guy, who got them in a large mixed lot. I have no idea who made them, what year they were released, or if the set is complete or not. I do know that among these 10 simple figures, I added six new species and three new genera to my synthetic insect collection ;-).

As I said the figures are stylized, but not to the point I could not made a decent attempt to identify them. Eventually and entomology colleague originally from Korea helped with the names on the back and confirmed or corrected my initial hunches (I had all the genera correct, just 1-2 species were off).

The figures sit in a nest of cotton and are contained within a small box that measures 50 mm x 35 mm x 17 mm. The box is a hard plastic, but the clear top is soft and taped on (so it does not have a hard clear cover). The boxes all interlock so it can form one unit (see the first pic below). On the back (in Japanese) is the scientific name, order, family, and a little biological information. The figures can be removed from the boxes (but I will display them boxed up).

I know this set is not for everyone, but it's a great chance to get some very interesting species.

This first pic shows the interlocked set (note the numbers were for another post and do not correspond to the individual images below). The Japanese text on the right is a mirror image of the figures on the left so if you want to match figure with text, you must mentally flip the image horizontally .



And on to individual figures:

1. Deraeocoris ater
This is a unique species for me, at both the genus and species levels. Terrestrial Heteroptera are not common, so I am always excited to get one. This is the figure that inspired me to contact my Korean colleague, since he is an expert on Miridae.



2. Nezara antennata (green stink bug)
I originally had this identified as the more familiar, N. viridula but apparently it is intended to be N. antennata. Another unique figure at both the genus and species levels, and another terrestrial heteropteran.



3. Anoplophora chinenses (Asian citrus longhorned beetle)
This figure is marketed as A. malasiaca, which is generally considered a synonym of A. chinensis, and I will consider here as well unless otherwise convinced. This species was also made by Rement and Hayakwa Toys.



4. Allomyrina dichotoma (Japanese rhinoceros beetle)
No set of Asian insects would be complete without this species. This little gem marks my 45th figure of this species! It has been made by over a dozen manufacturers!



5. Parasteatoda tepidariorum (common house spider)
This was a pleasant surprise, a spider marketed to the species level (and a unique figure for me at both the genus and species levels). This spider is in the same family of the widows (Theridiidae) and marks my first member of the family not in the genus Latrodectus.



6. Carabus insulicola (left) and C. gehinii (right).
Two unique species of Asian carabines is a nice treat! The only other species in this genus I am aware of is C. auratus which was made by Bullyland and Kaiyodo. K&M International had a Carabus species in their European Garden Tube.



7. Chrysochroa fulgidissima (left) and C. buqueti rugicollis (right).
Two jewel beetles. The former has been made by Yujin and F-toys (the latter of which should be coming to me soon from Brett). The second species is unique. A third species, C. limbata was made by DeAgostini.



8. Coccinella septempunctata (seven-spotted ladybug)
Another commonly-made species, but a welcome addition to this set.

[brontodocus]

A strange set with many interesting representatives! At first I thought those were magnets (there are quite a lot of these insect or arthropod magnets around which seem to be made in the same way with legs and antennae made out of wire). Although I'm not a big fan of those wire-legged fridge magnet style figures I must admit that some are quite unique choices species wide. I also have a handful of similarly made figures (with magnets) hanging on our fridge. Some of mine were given to me by a friend who bought them in India and said they were very cheap and widely available. It's nice to see that your set includes two heteropterans and I'm quite surprised they chose a member of Miridae. I have a magnet of another shield bug somewhere but I can't find it right at the moment. Sometimes even amphibians are made in a similar style, I have two generic treefrogs, one frog that looks like a Pelophylax sp., and the weirdest of them all, a Crested Newt which is uniformly purple. But I must admit, usually the legs and antennae are so generic that I'm really not very fond of them. However, there are exceptions, e.g. the legs on your Allomyrina dichotoma look a lot better than those on most of the others.

[bmathison1972]

A strange set with many interesting representatives! At first I thought those were magnets (there are quite a lot of these insect or arthropod magnets around which seem to be made in the same way with legs and antennae made out of wire). Although I'm not a big fan of those wire-legged fridge magnet style figures I must admit that some are quite unique choices species wide. I also have a handful of similarly made figures (with magnets) hanging on our fridge. Some of mine were given to me by a friend who bought them in India and said they were very cheap and widely available. It's nice to see that your set includes two heteropterans and I'm quite surprised they chose a member of Miridae. I have a magnet of another shield bug somewhere but I can't find it right at the moment. Sometimes even amphibians are made in a similar style, I have two generic treefrogs, one frog that looks like a Pelophylax sp., and the weirdest of them all, a Crested Newt which is uniformly purple. But I must admit, usually the legs and antennae are so generic that I'm really not very fond of them. However, there are exceptions, e.g. the legs on your Allomyrina dichotoma look a lot better than those on most of the others.

Andre, they might be magnets. I never took one out of the little box to find out! I just left them intact. And now that I think about it, I think Marcel sold them to me as magnets, but I never opened one to find out!

I should point out I also don't collect these 'wire figures' and only was interested in these as they were boxed with information on the back (kind of like museum specimens)