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An insect collector learned the hard way last year that you should never send stag beetles in the mail, because being stuffed in a box and shipped across the country unsurprisingly kills them.

A specialist apparently sent 240 stag beetles to be delivered to the collector’s Okinawa home. When the box – supplied by the Japanese Postal Service’s “Yu-paku” goods shipping service – arrived, the collector opened it to find all 240 of the beetles decidedly un-alive, prompting the man to sue for compensation; because, come on, if you’re shipping beetles, you expect a certain amount of care to be taken.

In the legal complaint, the collector says the postal service apparently sent the beetles accidentally to Kagoshima Prefecture first, then to Okinawa, meaning the hapless beetles endured an unnecessarily long commute that spelled their doom.

The postal service, for its part, contends that, while they did accidentally ship to the wrong address, only seven of the bugs were dead when they shipped, and that shipping live animals is inherently risky and that they can’t be held responsible for death in transit.

All told, the beetles apparently cost the collector nearly US$1,000, which he wants the postal service to cover. We’ll refrain from taking sides, but knowing the way the postal service generally treats boxes (hint: not well), we have to say the guy was crazy to expect the beetles to arrive intact in the first place.

“Yeah, just goal kick it in with the rest of the ‘fragile’ boxes.”

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Source: Itai News
Images: Wikipedia 1 (Pavel / krasensky), 2 (russavia)