The creepiest museum in the world
The other day I came face to face with a Heliocopris Dominus. Had we been the same size it would’ve been a frightening experience. Only a thin plate of glass separated us and, although the ghastly thing was dead, the armoured plating, menacing eyes and ominous horned head assured me that this was one non-nonsense beetle. I felt like dashing for the door there and then but I was wasn’t quite out of the woods yet, I still had to contend with an E. Gracillicornis (flying prehistoric super-insect), Dicranocephalus Wallichi (giant scarab) and A. Horridula (long tailed scorpion). Make no mistake, a visit to the Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders is no picnic. Luckily everything is dead and you can leave your arachnophobia in your hotel room.
Chiang Mai is home to one of Asia’s most unusual museums, one that celebrates all things creepy crawly. Within a 10-minute tuk tuk ride of the city centre is a kaleidoscope world of multicoloured butterflies and fabulously camouflaged stick insects, a place where beetles and bugs sport such astonishing shapes and features that they belong exclusively in science fiction comics, and where there are more variations of mosquito than there are bird species in Thailand.
The man behind all this is just as interesting as the contents of his museum. Manop Rattanarithikul is the enthomologist’s equivalent of a trainspotter. For most his adult life this retired lawyer has been collecting insects and studying them, finally setting up this small museum two years ago with his wife Dr. Rampa Rattanarithikul. They have both worked abroad in the Smithsonian Institute, published countless papers and studied in Japan and the UK. In addition to searching out weird and wonderful insect species from around the world, they have dedicated their lives to the study of one of Thailand’s smallest yet deadliest creatures, the humble mosquito.
Unbelievably there are 422 species of mosquito in Thailand, and 18 of them have been discovered by this pair. In fact as early as 1959 the man who would become known as the ‘Mosquito man’ had a species, toxorhynchites Manopi, named after him. Back then he was only a 22 year old working as a collector for Dr Ernestine Thurman, a pioneering researcher from the US Public Health Services.
Not surprisingly, a significant part of the museum is given over to this tiny creature and, as Manop excitedly explained, there’s more to this little devil than you’d imagine. Sporting a T-shirt that reads ‘ get to know and you’ll understand’ he soon had me sympathising with these pesky little critters. Firstly, there’s only 22 species that are harmful and only three, belonging to the Anopheles family, carry malaria. In fact, according to Manop, you’ve got more chance of winning the lottery here in Thailand than catching the deadly disease. Luckily he’s not a gambler, the fellow has caught several different strains of malaria in his life time, though it doesn’t seem to have dented his enthusiasm.
“Mosquitos are nature’s way of naturally transmitting immunity, vaccinating people to resist virus”, he explains. “I let them bite me all the time, wherever I go I keep a mug to capture them, I never kill a mosquito. “In fact”, he adds, stabbing the air with his guides pointer “it is us humans who are the most villainous species on earth”. Fortunately Chiang Mai and much of Northern Thailand is deemed Malaria free, but he has advice for those wanting to avoid getting bitten by the blood suckers. “They like dark places and breed in nearby water, if you leave a bag outside they will soon collect inside, usually they feed at dusk or dawn, but they avoid lightness, such as white clothing.” He then points out that many of the ‘anti-bite’ sprays and creams available are so toxic that you’re better off getting bitten. As he spoke my attention was distracted by a photo exhibition that drew groans of disgust from some visitors. Closer inspection revealed some graphic pictures of elephantitis-like symptoms caused by the rarer disease, filariasis, which had left one poor fellow in the photos with testicals the size of a football!
But the museum has much more on display and the entrance is decked out in an unusual display of petrified wood, giant termite nests, unusual globe-shaped honeycombed insect nests, exotic insect habitats and strange pictures. It’s also surprisingly clean and tidy. The upper floor is a real treat and certain to keep the kids amazed. Rows of display cabinets are the final resting place of scores of fabulous creatures that look so perfect that you suspect they have been moulded from plastic in some toy factory. But this is all nature by design. Take the Lucanidae Prosopocoilus for example, with its own handy set of long nose pinchers stuck to its forehead, or the Scarabanedae Goliathus - a winged monster which is bigger than a small bird. Others in the same family include the Cetoniinae that comes in such a colourful range that your kids could easily mistake them for smarties. Or how about the more ferocious looking Dynastinae, whose shape closely resembles a rhinoceros.
There are Tarantulas with legs that are more hairy than your mother-in-law’s and stick insects longer than a teacher’s ruler. On display are centipedes with more legs than the front row of a pop concert and beetles decked out in more colours than a kids crayon set. Manopi and his wife have even collected a few odd looking mutations with extra appendages. But perhaps the most intriquing display in the museum contains the camouflaged insects. So perfectly disguised are some of the species that you could spend more than half an hour discovering leaves that are actually butterflies and bamboo shoot with legs.
Manop himself is an entertaining guide and has mounted some of the more popular insects into gift boxes which he sells. We soon got onto the inevitable subject of eating insects. Markets in Thailand are full of selections of deep friend worms, bugs and scorpions, so I asked for his recommendations. “Yes, insects are a good source of protein and full of vitamins, very delicious too” he assured me. If you try eat them you will forget salmonella chicken and bird flu” he adds with a hint of humour. With the impending rainy season drawing near he suggests I go looking for rain beetles, they make a great snack apparently!
I guess you’d have to be very hungry to want to eat insects, but if you have an appetite for the unusual this museum is a feast for those with a taste for the macabre on a micro scale.
The Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders is located on Srimankalajarn Road, soi 13 ( midway between Suithep and Huay Kaew roads near Suan Dok Hospital), and entrance costs 200 baht. (Open daily: 9am - 5pm).
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