I quite like my Angry Birds iPhone case, and I wouldn’t mind one of the Be@rbrick cases we featured a while back, however that’s about as far as I’ve wanted to go with animal-related cases.  But if you’re after something far more, um, beetle-y, then how about the Dokkiri?

This iPhone 4 case has a rear cover made to look like the bark of a tree with a beetle crawling over it.  Yes, that’s a 3D model of a beetle on the back of an iPhone.  It’s not a little beetle either, but a honking great big one, and although I’m no entomologist I’m assuming it’s a Hercules beetle.

The reason I have to assume is that the Strapya.com page where you can buy one is in Japanese, and Google’s translation doesn’t really help.  For example, it says ‘big impact! candid coverage throat!’ and that you should ‘definitely remove the liver’.  I’ve honestly no idea what it’s talking about.

The accompanying images are equally inexplicable too – the picture of the Japanese girl with a feeble little net being menaced by a gigantic beetle is superb!

Anyway, to understand why anyone would want an iPhone case with a massive beetle on the back, you should know that come the summer months, hunting and capturing beetles is a popular pastime in crazy Japan.  Beetles are such big business that these enormous Hercules beetles and other similar species are imported from Brazil and can fetch up to $350 each!

This handmade monstrosity is yours for 3990 Yen, or $30/£50, but you’ll have to take the case off to take a picture (of other beetles, perhaps) as there isn’t a hole for the camera lens.  Brilliant.  The Dokkiri will be available from the end of July.

Right, I’m off to get my order in!

(via Akihabara)