Cheerless chiropteran

With events held to show off their scrapping skills, and hugely popular trading cards designed to pit their purported power and prowess against one another, it’s perhaps not surprising that beetles remain common pets in Japan — at least amongst young boys.

However whilst this popularity is fairly hard to fathom, what’s possibly even more unusual is the prices that are sometimes paid, with these little fellas costing a whopping 20,000 yen (90 pound).

Although arguably that constitutes a bargain, as the prize specimens below sell for more than double. Could they be better with small children perhaps, or maybe even housetrained?

Yet coming across incredibly expensive insects in a western Tokyo home centre is one thing, but decidedly more disconcerting is the sight of a caged bat placed casually beside the beagles and budgerigars.

The miserable mammal no doubt assuming it had arrived back in the place tubby Texan Meat Loaf claims it may once have originally come from.