If you hear the word Maeng Da and immediately think of something, you are probably an expert on Thailand and a lover of living things.
Maeng Da means tagame in Thai.
However, there are actually two types of creatures called maeng da in Thai.
One species is the Formosan tortoise, which is also called the Mendah na because it lives in rice fields.
Na means rice field in Thai.
The other type is horseshoe crab, and this one is called Maeng Da Talay.
Talay means sea in Thai.
In this way, there are two types of Maeng Da in Thailand, but the one commonly called Maeng Da is the Formosan Tortoise.
As a side note, let me introduce you to some Thai slang.

In addition to being the name of a type of creature, "Menda" is also used to refer to men who are dependent on women. This comes from the fact that adult horseshoe crabs, not giant horseshoe crabs, are often found with the male and female attached.
In Thailand, there are many lazy men who do not work themselves and are parasitic to hard-working women.
For this reason, "Mendar" is used as a derogatory term.
Even if I make a mistake, I want to be careful not to be told by Thai people that I'm a mender (lol).

Well, the introduction has become long, but what I would like to introduce here today is the mender of the Formosan giant tortoise.
Many people may be aware of the Japanese giant turtle (Kirkaldyia deyrolli) because it has been featured in the news, but it has been designated as a Specified Type 2 Domestic Rare Wild Fauna and Flora, and its sale and transfer have been prohibited since February last year. It has become virtually impossible to raise any specimens other than those collected by yourself.
This is why the Formosan tortoise (Lethocerus indicus), which can now be kept as a pet without these regulations, has been attracting attention.
The Formosan tortoise is a very popular ingredient in Thailand, and is eaten in a variety of ways under the name Maenda.
There seems to be records of Japanese giant turtles being eaten as food in the past when they were abundant, but now that their numbers have decreased, they are no longer relevant to people's lives.
In Thailand, the male maeng da, which emits pheromones during the breeding season, is ground together with chili peppers, and is familiar to people as a spice called Namphrik Maeng Da.
The pheromones of this male male are often said to have a fruity odor, but it is difficult to understand this unless you smell it for yourself.
It has a complex sweet aroma similar to fruits such as pear, pineapple, and banana, and I don't think it smells like insects at all.
Recently, cider and gin that use the scent of Maeng Da are on sale in Japan, so if you are interested, you should give them a try.

Female Maen Daa stores eggs in their bodies during the breeding season, and are highly prized as food, and are even more expensive than males.
Maeng da is very popular as a food in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
The reason it is edible is because there are so many of them in nature.
However, strangely enough, in my experience, it is an insect that you don't often see in the field.
I have been collecting bettas and other creatures that live in wetlands, ponds, streams, rice fields, etc. from quite a lot of places, but in the last ten years or so, I have started to see fish getting into my nets. , I've only seen it less than 10 times.
This is probably due to the fact that we do not yet understand the actual habitat and timing of the mendar's activities.

In Japan, the experience points for finding the habitat of the giant turtle are quite high, so there is a high probability of finding the habitat of the giant turtle, but it seems that the experience points are completely useless for Maeng Da in Thailand.
In Thailand, edible Maeda is collected mainly in the rural areas of the northeast.
It is very interesting to hear how they are collected, which is mainly done at night.
About 15 years ago, I wanted to see what it was like, so I went to a place called ChumPhae in northeastern Thailand to report on it.
At night, the sight of blue lights shining all over the vast rice field area was very magical.
In Thailand, ultraviolet black lights are used to collect Maeng Da.
This light is used to attract and collect the mandarins that fly in at night.
In addition to Maeng Da, this light is also used as a light trap for other edible insects, and is also called Maeng Da Light in Thailand.
The mandar that is attracted to this light will fly, hit the vinyl affixed to the trap, and fall into the trap placed below.
Menders collected in this way are often sold alive at markets, and there are many opportunities to see this interesting behavior.

Dead individuals are preserved in salt for long-term preservation.
Maeda is popular as food in Thailand, but now that it has become difficult to raise domestic giant turtles, in Japan it has become prized as a pet.
I've been using Maeda for breeding for a long time, but there are a few things to keep in mind.
One is that Maeda sold in the market for food is not suitable for breeding.
This is because many individuals are kept together in cages, where they are weak, and their proboscises are cut off to prevent them from fighting.
In fact, I have obtained edible Maeda, but the mortality rate was quite high and the results were not always satisfactory.
For this reason, there was a misunderstanding in the past that Maeda was weaker and more difficult to keep than Japanese giant turtles.
However, I asked an acquaintance to collect the specimens and immediately package them individually, and they were extremely durable and did not die quickly, which led me to change my perception that they were weak.
Even the individuals I occasionally collected in the field were stronger than those from Japan.
Healthy chickens in good condition are ideal for breeding, but care must be taken when handling them.

Here is one of my failure stories.
One day, when I was holding Maeng Da in my hand, I accidentally got stung by the proboscis.
It was a momentary event that lasted just a few tenths of a second, but I felt an intense pain in my right ring finger.
It swelled up quickly, and in no time it was twice as thick!
Even after several days, the area around the nail turned purple and the swelling did not go down.
I was unable to even hold chopsticks or a pen, and I feared my fingers would die.
Fortunately, I recovered completely in about a month, but I was once again reminded of the dangers of Maen Da's digestive juices.
I had a similar experience with the larvae of the larva, so care must be taken when raising aquatic insects.
Instead of poison, they inject digestive juices into the bodies of their prey, and eat the dissolved body fluids as food.
This digestive fluid is like poison to people like me who suffer from allergies.
I've seen pictures online of people's hands getting swollen from being bitten by Japanese giant tortoises, so please don't let your guard down.

Regarding the breeding of Mendar, the aquarium settings, food, management methods, etc. are the same as for domestic giant tortoises.
My feeling is that Mender is a little more nervous about things like noise.
Like domestic giant turtles, they sometimes escape out of the aquarium at night, but because they are large and strong, they can easily escape if you do not keep the lid firmly on.
If you are lucky enough to obtain both males and females, I would like you to take up the challenge of breeding them.
There are several Maeda farms in Thailand, and I toured them once, and found that the way they protect their eggs and raise their larvae is almost the same as in Japan.
I would definitely like to observe their interesting breeding behavior.