Giant Water Bugs (Lethocerus)

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Mike

Giant Water Bug ThailandA short while ago I received a request from Mike Reedy an eminent research scientist in the USA, asking if I could help him locate a source in Thailand for Giant Water Bugs (Lethocerus) which are called Mangdah แมงดา in Thai. Having an interest in wildlife and wanting to try and help I invited Mike to write a short post about his research and why he needed the bugs. This is what he has to say about the subject.

I am the lead investigator of a laboratory at Duke University, and I am looking for Giant Water Bugs (Lethocerus) or Mangdah (แมงดา) in Thai,  for our muscle research.

We and an English lab use their flight muscles as a model for human muscle, especially heart muscle,  in order to help us understand how heart muscle works, why it stops working normally in heart failure, and how it might be healed to overcome heart failure.

We use the water bug’s flight muscles because they are both large and perfectly lined up which means cells can be imaged with greater resolution than any other muscle of this type. We have used X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy imaging of the water bug’s muscle to solve the previously mysterious mechanism of stretch activation: the mechanical action which lets the giant water bug stay aloft as it flies and enables the human heart to pump blood non-stop for a hundred years while normal arm and leg muscles give in after only a few hours of constant work. There is still a lot to uncover, but we need more water bugs to do it.

Our two labs would ideally like to share a fresh supply of up to 500 living bugs each year to supply our studies, but can take less as long as 25 or more reach our lab alive. Our usual supply from Northwest Thailand (around Chiang Mai) has failed for two years running, possibly because of a drought. Our fresh frozen stocks of muscle are getting low.

Right now, February to March, are the last months to catch live giant water bugs, but where?

We need your readers to tell us (and our collector who packs and ships them from Chiang Mai) if you have seen any live giant water bugs flying around lights, or sold in markets, or served in restaurants in any regions and towns of Thailand north of Bangkok where they are usually found.

We can pay $1.00 USD per giant water bug (up to 500) that makes it alive to Chiang Mai to be shipped from there. For dead bugs we only pay shipping expenses; they are no use to us. We need the biggest bugs possible, 68-75 mm.

Giant Water Bug ThailandNow both Mike and I realise this is a long shot,  but if you are a Thai based reader of this blog who knows maybe you can help in this worthwhile research. In fact if you live in Issan or somewhere else up country you might even have eaten the bug or know someone that has! Perhaps a Thai friend would appreciate earning a few hundred Dollars for no outlay other than a bit of time?

Even if you are not based in Thailand you can help publicise what Mike requires just  by Tweeting and Stumbling this post.  Feel free to use any other social media you think might help too.

Can I also ask anyone who thinks they can help finding Giant Water Bugs, to contact me initially and with your permission I will forward your details to Mike and his local agent here in Thailand.

Related posts:

  1. Thailand Water Works
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  • http://www.strayandsnap.blogspot.com Snap

    Mike…they’re HUGE and look awfully like a cockroach to me. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for them, not that I think they’d be hard to miss. Interesting post!

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Snap, thanks, I hope Mike gets some specimens. Maybe from your area, since thats were his contact in Thailand lives.

  • http://thaiconnoisseur.blogspot.com Peter_M

    Wow, massive beasts! Hope I never see one in my bedroom. $1 per bug could be a good earner if you know where to find them.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Peter yes a similar thought crossed my mind but like you say a nice earner for someone in rural Issan for example.

  • http://missus-emm.blogspot.com/ Emm

    Tweeted! I’m sure I’ve already told you but I have a cockroach phobia. It is the American house cockroach that is the source of my excessive fear but I’m usually okay with the bigger, wild cockroaches you find in Asia and Africa. For some reason though, that first photo just ‘got’ to me. Maybe it is the hand or the size of it or the way it looks like a house cockroach. Interesting really – I can’t even look at it!! :o )

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Emm I have to agree they do look a bit like cockroaches. Funnily enough we don’t get many cockroaches here(or water bugs). Thanks for the Tweet anyway, you never know someone may help.

  • http://oneditorial.wordpress.com/ Oneditorial

    I would strongly recommend going to fresh markets in Thailand. There are bound to be some people who sell these bugs in the market. I have no doubt that they would know where to catch them. Even better, if they realised that they would get adequate remuneration from supplying these creatures for this research, they would do the job with alacrity.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Great idea but which markets? This is what Mike really wants. I agree folk would probably be happy to do it but we have to find the folks. So if you have any contacts here perhaps you would pass on the message?

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Many thanks, I am sure they are out there. Unfortunately no one I know has the skills required for an accurate translation, but a good suggestion none the less.

  • hubert

    i have giant water bugs in my basement , there are many of them, so you can contact me for any thing you may need.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Hubert, perhaps you could use the contact form on this blog and I will forward your details to the researcher. Didn’t realise they lived inside a basement.

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