In Latin America, there is a giant beetle called euphorbia longifolia, which is loved by the Japanese. The Japanese not only imported a large number of euphorbia from South America as pets, but also used them for animal fighting performances. However, China restricts the import of Euphorbia longiflora, and customs has also seized many Euphorbia longiflora disguised as toys.
What are the characteristics of euphorbia longifolia as a pet? Why do Japanese people like Euphorbia longifolia so much? Why is China banning the introduction of Euphorbia longifolia?
Euphorbia longifolia
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="4" What are the characteristics of Euphorbia longifolia >? </h1>
Euphorbia longifolia is endemic to Latin America, but to be acceptable to most people, it must have many advantages in itself.
(1) Good feeding
The first consideration for pets is the cost. Although it has two huge pincers, it is a gentle vegetarian. In addition to the young leaves that beetles like to eat, they also like to eat fruits or sap rich in sugar. In countries and regions where euphorbia can be legally raised, some people even feed euphorbia longifolia jelly for insects.
In addition to the very low cost of feed, euphorbia longifolia has a relatively low need for the environment. All you need to do is a humus-rich crawler box or a cheap plastic box to live.
Euphorbia longifolia in a reptile box
(2) It will not add trouble
Pet ownership should secondly consider whether the incidental problems are troublesome to deal with. Compared with mammals that are pets, Euphorbia longifolia does not need to bathe, does not need to take regular care of their fur, and only needs to ensure the supply of food. The point is that insect excrement such as Euphorbia longifolia is particularly easy to handle, not only in small amounts but also without much odor.
Although the price of a euphorbia longifolia is not necessarily cheaper than a dog, if you count the cost of the pet dog's later washing and maintenance, the euphorbia longifolia really does not cost much. Moreover, at the end of its lifespan, euphorbia can be made into insect specimens or other crafts.
A long euphorbia made into crafts
(3) Body shape huge
The last thing to consider when owning a pet is what makes it unique. The most impressive thing about the Euphorbia longifolia is its huge size. Euphorbia longifolia is one of the largest beetles, the largest of which is more than 18 cm. The body length of the euphorbia is mainly supported by its incredibly large "pliers", and its pliers account for half of the body length. The large pliers of the Euphorbia longifolia are not ornaments, it is mainly used for courtship duels. Only the lower end of the pincers of the euphorbia longifolia can be moved, and the upper one mainly plays a role in support and fixation.
Don't look at the Euphorbia longifolia weighs only 150 grams, but can lift very heavy things. Euphorbia longifolia is also known as Dynastes hercules because of this feature, and Hercules is the god hercules in ancient Greek mythology.
A long-winged euphorbia worm with its wings outstretched
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > why Japanese people like Euphorbia longifolia</h1>
Euphorbia longifolia can be legally purchased in many countries, so why is it only the Japanese who prefer it so much?
(1) Unique beetle culture
Japanese people have a special affection for beetles, and basically every city has pet shops that specialize in selling beetles. In addition, the beetle image is a common element in Japanese manga, games, and anime. The childhood memories of China's post-90s generation, the robot Kabuda in the Japanese special film "Iron Armor Xiaobao" is a fusion of the shape of a unicorn fairy and a spade armor.
A beetle-type robot in the Iron Armor Treasure
Due to their unique love for beetles, the Japanese naturally love Ya and Uchi for the mighty Euphorbia longiflora. The proper noun "big hood" was invented by the Japanese, and the reason why it is called "hood" is because the shape of the head of the big hood is very similar to the móu (móu) of the Sengoku period in Japan.
(2) Like fighting insects
Watching animal duels is a way of entertainment that has always existed in human society, and the common fighting animal projects in China are cockfighting, cockfighting, and Japanese people also like to watch fighting insects. The euphorbia is powerful and powerful, and it is naturally selected as a good material for fighting insects. There are many people in Japan who will let themselves breed euphorbia and other people's duels.
Some economically minded businessmen even hold professional bug fighting competitions, which sell tickets to the outside world and live-stream them on television. These insect fighting competitions include those that have euphorbia duel with their close relatives, the unicorn, or those that have them duel with arthropods.
Euphorbia longifolia worm fighting insect
Although the merchants made a lot of money through this kind of hunting competition, this caused irreversible damage to the euphorbia longifolia. Euphorbia is a mild-mannered vegetarian who rarely uses its own pliers to attack other animals except for courtship duels.
Forcing it to duel with its own kind and even some invincible opponents is too cruel. Japanese television once broadcast a duel between a euphorbia and a scorpion. Although the size of the two is similar, the Euphorbia longifolia is obviously weaker than the scorpion in terms of attack power. Although some euphorbia worms will not fall behind in duels with their kind, they cannot deal with such a ferocious predator as scorpions.
Euphorbia longifolia duel scorpions
In the game, the euphorbia worm was easily overturned by the scorpion with pincers several times, and it was difficult to turn over once it was overturned due to its inflexible movement. Seeing that his opponent was temporarily incapacitated, the scorpion was not busy mending the knife, but instead waited for the euphorbia to climb up again. During the fight, euphorbia was broken by a leg, but no matter how it attacked with its large pincers, it could not penetrate the scorpion's hard shell. It also couldn't lift the scorpion and throw it out like Hercules.
Purely entertaining colossal games are fine, but the use of colossal performances to make a huge profit for themselves is indeed immoral, and such a game should be resisted.
Euphorbia longifolia duel the Imperial Scorpion
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" >Why does China restrict the entry of Euphorbia longifolia? </h1>
However, compared with the Japanese who have a fanatical love for euphorbia, China is not very welcome for this unique-looking giant beetle, and even customs has detained many beetle packages from Japan.
On April 19 this year, Xiamen Customs seized five Euphorbia longifolia in their incoming packages. After identifying the five Euphorbia longiflora as four females and one male, the buyer is likely to have five beetles bred.
Five euphorbia longifolia intercepted by Xiamen Customs
China's fears of euphorbia damaging the ecological environment are not unfounded, because the Japanese have paid the price for their crazy love of euphorbia. In order to make money, the citizens of many small countries in South America have smuggled euphorbia longiflora out of the country despite orders prohibiting the capture of wild beetles, many of which have been sold to Japan. The total price of beetles imported by Japan every year is almost as high as 10 billion yen. Although foreign beetles enrich the daily pet choices of Japanese people, they also bring many problems.
The first problem is the carrying of pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Unlike imported agricultural and sideline products, imported beetles are not convenient for quarantine. Once released into nature, these unguarded imported beetles can easily infect many native species with infectious diseases. Without human intervention, few native species can survive the ravages of exotic diseases.
Inspection of euphorbia longifolia for illegal entry
The second is to squeeze out the living space of native species. For added convenience, many Japanese beetle players will buy multiple beetles at a time, so that they can breed their own larvae. If interest in purchased beetles is lost during this time, many irresponsible players will put them back in nature. These big, aggressive guys are bound to threaten the native beetles, causing them to be greatly reduced or even endangered.
The final problem is that alien beetles hybridize with native species to produce new species, thereby destroying native species. This is not a vacuum, as the Japanese have already found new species in the local area from the hybridization of native spade nails and Thai spade nails.
Flat spade nails
It is precisely because of the consideration of the above problems that China restricts the entry of euphorbia longifolia. However, there are still many Beetle players who still have a fluke mentality. In order to fool through the customs, many players who buy Euphorbia longifolia from Japan will let the seller mark the goods as toys, digital products, etc. But these were all detected by the X-ray machine in the process of customs clearance, and even the eggs were stuffed into the robot toys.
In this regard, I would like to persuade reptile players who still play the idea of illegally buying Euphorbia longiflora to stop it. Because in fact, there is nothing special about the pet except for its unique appearance. Many native species, whether it is cost-effective or appearance is not worse than foreign varieties, the key is that they are safe and cheap.
Unicorn fairy
In order to protect the native species of our country and maintain the ecological balance in the country, please do not buy or sell any alien creatures that are prohibited by the state!