The clockbug, or eupcaccia, is a fictional insect created by
Japanese writer
Kōbō Abe
, pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often bee ...
that features in his novel, ''
The Ark Sakura
''The Ark Sakura'' (方舟さくら丸 ''Hakobune Sakura-maru'') is a novel by the Japanese novelist Kōbō Abe. The novel's protagonist is a recluse who, convinced that the world will end soon, takes up residence in an abandoned mine and then at ...
''.
The clockbug is an insect species whose legs have atrophied, mobility being unnecessary for its existence since it lives by consuming its own
feces
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
, merely using its antennae to rotate in a counter-clockwise fashion, continuously manifesting a circular trail of excretion and ingestion. The organism's slow
metabolic rate
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...
allows time for nutrients in its feces to be replenished by bacterial action. It eats from dawn until sunset and sleeps through the night, and since it is
heliotropic – with its head always pointing towards the sun – it also functions as a timepiece.
The protagonist of ''The Ark Sakura'', known as Pig (though preferring to be called Mole), identifies with the clockbug and marvels at the resemblance he sees between himself and the insect. At one point he remarks:
:''I believe that the eupcaccia is symbolic of a certain philosophy or way of life. However much you may move around, as long as the motion is circular you haven't really gone anywhere; the important thing is to maintain a tranquil inner core.''
The clockbug's variant name, ''eupcaccia'', suggests a combination of the prefix ''eu-'', meaning ''good'' and the Italian word ''caccia'', meaning ''hunt'', in other words, ''good hunting''. The name also suggests a combination of ''caccia'' and ''eupeptic'', meaning ''having good digestion'' and ''cheerful'', ''optimistic''. Considerable irony follows from the latter suggestion, as Pig/Mole is a paranoid
survivalist who has built and inhabits an enormous nuclear
fallout shelter in an abandoned quarry.
References
*''The Ark Sakura'' (方舟さくら丸) "Hakobune Sakura-maru" (1984) (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, 1988).
Keffer, David. ''Kobo Abé''. In ''The Scriptorium'' Accessed 19 June 2006.
Fictional insects