Well, the pix enlarged just fine for me [shudder]–I’ve got Win95 and IE5.
What, Jam, you don’t WANT to kiss the bimbette? Sheesh, you’re hard to please. Okay, then, we’ll have to get Jeff Goldblum for the role instead, I guess.
(It’s my understanding, from the Forum Descriptions, that this thread shouldn’t be in any danger of being moved to MPSIMS unless we start hugging. That’s with the {{{{ }}}} brackets. If everyone in the thread keeps his hands to himself, we ought to be okay.)
Next time I’m at the local market, I’ll try to remember to
pick up a can of “Image Editing Software”. I may actually
have some here somewhere. I do most of my “work” in a
text editor on a Unix system or Win2k Command Window.
(I wasn’t kidding about my “festering curmudgeonliness”.)
First successful attempt anyway. But thanks!
Yes, the behavior was there. When anyone approached it
would arch up and swing its head from side to side in
sweeping arcs. It must have depleted its flammable
saliva before entering the premises or I would be writing
to you now from the local burn ward. 
This one didn’t escape; we caught it before it got outside.
And please don’t call this a toy factory where my boss
might read about it. When I say “microelectronic devices”
he thinks of satellites and telecommunications. Nevermind
that what makes his cell phone so small also makes for
some great things that we know are really toys.
(Seen the latest hard disk from IBM? 1GB on a disk the size
of a U.S. Quarter!)
Well they always promise me up front that I will get
the girl, but then the action starts and I wind up in the
background wearing a long white coat while one of the
salesmen steps in front of the camera and steals the
scene with his sparkling vacuous grin.
It made me think of Starship Troopers.
I wondered if it was actually only midway through
metamorphosis. It did not exhibit the languor I thought
was usual for insects in a pupal phase.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the pictures all show it in
basically the same posture and position. I hadn’t noticed
until now that they all show it curving its body to the
right. I don’t remember it being partial to that side.
I think the technician wielding the camera (Kenji Sugita)
rotated the sheet of paper it was on to get the views I
suggested in the same direction between each shot. The
subject was aware of humans and would try to keep a
head-on presentation. If undisturbed for several seconds
it would lower its head and hind end then cast
about “aimlessly”.
Definitely has large compound eyes. The top view shows
them best as they are facing right at the camera. In all
the views it has its head reared up. Even while flailing
on its back for the bottom view shot.
Very tenacious prolegs. And on the segment just posterior
to the last pair of prolegs you can see a pair of spikes.
(Cleary visible in the front view.) I did not see it extrude
silk but we placed it in a plastic box and the next morning
there were dozens of random strands in with it.
In the front view, the mouth is just above and between the
two white dots (reflections) that many people who see these
photos think are the eyes. What I think are the eyes are
the two globular structures with dark smudges above that.
The desiccated remains of this specimen were last seen (by
me anyway) about two weeks ago. We had a general cleanup
since then and the container it was in may have been
discarded. Either that or it got stashed in one of the
storage cabinets. I looked around for a few minutes this
morning but didn’t find it. Is it worth a thorough search?
As more knowledgeable people fail to identify this wee
beast, the more I kick myself for not paying better
attention to its care and keeping when it crossed my path.
Duh! [DDG smacks self upside the head]
My subconscious mind woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me, “Hey, the giant bug movies professor at the U of I! Send her an e-mail!” Translated, this means, “You live in the same neck of the woods where they hold the annual Insect Fear Film Festival–see if what’s-er-name is still around, and have Jam e-mail her with his ugly bug pix.”
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/ifff.html
Evidently she’s still there. It’s worth a try, eh?
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/deptindex.html
(I can’t get her page to come up by itself. Scroll down to “Faculty Staff & Affiliates” and then click on her name)
Generally, I don’t go mailing pictures of repulsive insects
(we have all agreed on that taxon, no?) to people with whom
I’ve had no previous contact. Do you know this particular
entomologist, Duck Duck Goose? Or have reason to think
she might welcome such a random inquiry? I don’t want to
bother a total stranger.
Her reputation is that of a genial, fun-loving, bug-loving soul. Anybody who starts an Insect Fear Film Festival can’t be all bad.
I’d send her an e-mail myself, except that (a) you’re the one with the pictures, and (b) you’re an actual scientist-type person, and you might have more credibility. I am just a housewife with too much time on her hands. I’m sure she gets lots of “what is this bug?” calls; she might pay more attention to you.
Send her a “query” e-mail–say, “I’ve got these pix of a weird bug, possibly Japanese, possibly Canadian, and wouldn’t it be exciting for the Japanese Food and Drug Administration, whoever they are, if it DID turn out to be an illegal alien bug from British Columbia that came in on one of our crates, can you tell me what this bug is, please?” She’s got about 25 people under her in the Entomology Department–surely there’s some hungry intern who would jump at the chance to suck up a little and run the thing through the database.
I’m serious. I’m not joking. [insert dead-serious emoticon] This is how we do things in America.
I mean, what’s she gonna do, send legbreakers over to your house 'cause you bothered her at work? At the very worst, your e-mail will disappear into the electronic void, never to be heard from again.
Ah, fooey. It’s the Japanese Department of Agriculture, of course, not the Food and Drug Administration. I keep getting all these Feds mixed up. The FDA is the one in the pinstripes, the USDA are in brown suits, and the FBI is in gray.
I just wanna say, NanoByte, don’t be such a stranger. This board could definitely use your wit a little more often than you’re able to impart.
No, I don’t think it was part-way through a normal metamorphosis. However, I wonder whether some developmental screw-up; perhaps, excessive secretion of “juvenile hormone,” or dosage with an insecticide containing this hormone, could have caused some kind of partial metamorphosis. But the characteristics that are present don’t make sense for any single insect order I can recall. The apparent absence of antennae on the “adult-type” head doesn’t make sense for a lepidopteran (butterfly/moth); yet I think only lepidopterans (and maybe some relatives) have those kind of abdominal legs we see on the caterpillar half.
I will definitely try to get it ID’d when I get back to work, but that won’t be until Jan 3.
After reading about the Insect Fear Film Festival and its
creator, I have decided that Prof. Berenbaum is probably
not the best expert to bother. Feel free to e-mail her
yourself and provide the link to the pictures if you like,
Duck Duck Goose. I’ll keep that page available for
several more weeks. For your convenience, here’s the link:
http://twics.co.jp/~jamoross/larva/sdmbref.html
I finally figured out my provider’s counter thingy and
added one Wednesday evening. Since then it’s had 352
hits from unique IP addresses! Wow! Who would
have thought so many people would want to see such an
ugly bug? I’m glad it wasn’t found near my house…
Anyway, I did a web search and found plenty of pages from
university entomology departments that have faculty whose
specialities indicate they might be interested in this.
So I’ve decided to wait until Colobri can ask his
colleagues. And if that fails, then I’ll pick a victim or
two and hit them with a cold-call via e-mail.
Part of the reason scientist types pay more attention to
correspondence from others of their own ilk is that they
can assume such queries have been pre-screened for
relevance to their specialty or interests. And that
certain forms will be observed, like having checked with
personal associates first.
Housewives, on the other hand, are free from expectations
of knowing such arcana and need only be polite. So fire
away if you think you can get her attention during the
holidays.
Well, given Mjollnir’s sanction. . .not being either an arcana-free housewife or a scientist, apparently I don’t have to be either informed or polite. . .so I’ll just say that the whole subject is very boring. 
(But if it lacks antennae, it’s probably just because someone stole its cell phone.)
Ray (ex-EE)
I think it unlikely that it was dosed with a hormonal
insecticide. This is Japan; we use poisons. Copiously.
An odd point that seems to contradict both our ideas of
some kind of developmental defect was the specimen’s
behavior. The posturing and mock-threat displays suggest
that a formidable outward appearance has been an asset
for many generations. It’s a common technique here though,
so assuming it is defective, it could still have an
intimdation response even in its normal configuration.
The anterior features most closely resemble some local
odonates, especially the legs because of their relative
lengths. The lepidopteran posterior portion, although
distinctive, is completely unfamiliar to me. (Unsurprising
since I only know the bugs that frequent my garden. My
youngest son however, was a mildly avid entomological
hobbyist before he decided to major in chemistry, and he
said it’s nothing like anything he ever studied.)
I’ll be off until January 5, but may check in here anyway
before then. Thanks for asking around.
Ok, here’s the deal on Jamoross’s mini-monster. I ran it by some colleagues here at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and this is the reply I got from Dr. Annette Aiello, who is our caterpillar expert:
Additional info I extracted from The Dictionary of Butterflies and Moths (Laithwaite et al., 1975):
Apparently they feed mainly on beech and oak trees, rarely if ever on radioactive waste.
Sigh. I was hoping it would turn out to be a juvenile Mothra. Still, something called a “lobster moth” isn’t too shabby.
Invasion of the Lobster Moths. Hmmm–I like it.
[Say, Mack, get me Jeff Goldblum’s agent, willya?]
Many thanks, George. Starting from the information you
provided, I have had some success with search engines.
I’m going to call it Stauropus fagi persimilis based on
listings in some local Japanese pest surveys. I couldn’t
find any specific pictures, but it looks close enough to
photos of other S. fagi that it is obviously closely related.
Spraying acid! “Pungent fuming vesicant acid (CH[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub])
may induce blistering.” Surrounded by a suitable reactant,
maybe this guy could have done a flamethrower number!
I found the species listed as a pest on oaks and maples.
Apparently, the larva burrow into the soil where they
spin a cocoon and spend the winter as pupae. This
individual must have been looking for a soft place to dig
when it wandered into our lab.
It’s a ƒVƒƒƒ`ƒzƒRƒK (shachihokoga) in Japanese which, very
loosely translates as “gargoyle moth”. (Shachihoko are the
large fish-like ornaments on the roofs of temples and “ga”
means moth.)
Also please extend my thanks to Dr. Aiello. If either of
you happen to pass through Tokyo, look me up and I’ll see
that you get some proper hospitality.
Thanks for the thought, jam, but we ain’t likely to be dropping by until you get rid of them damn acid-spewing caterpillars. 
Oh, and just to tidy up one other loose end:
Irishman, the Gaelic for “namesake” is comhainmneach. I hope you have the opportunity to use this information in some other thread.
Okay, okay, Colibri, so go write some more Staff Reports.
