#insect type

DigiMonday - YANMAMON

(Adult Level/Data Attribute/Insect Type)

Following in Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon's freaky little footsteps in being an insect-themed Digimon with a horrifying vertebrate-style toothy maw, Yamnmamon also follows their example in being named after a specific real insect taxon; ヤンマ("yanma") translates roughly to "dragonfly", but is often used more specifically to refer to large dragonfly species while トンボ ("tonbo") refers to dragonflies generally. Its official description gets even more specific, explaining that it was born from data on a specific dragonfly species, the Jumbo Dragonfly:

(A Jumbo Dragonfly pictured in Inotani, Japan, image source here.)

Also known as the Golden-Ringed Dragonfly, the Jumbo Dragonfly (Anotogaster sieboldii) is a large species of dragonfly found across much of China, Japan and the Korean peninsula. Primarily inhabiting forest habitats, adults of this species are often found near slow-moving rivers with rocky substrates which provide them both with an environment in which to lay eggs (with young Jumbo Dragonflies being aquatic predators of smaller freshwater invertebrates) and a source of prey in the form of other water-associated insects such as mayflies. At up to 10cm long mature Jumbo Dragonflies are among eastern Asia's largest odonates (the collective term for dragonflies and their relatives the damselflies,) and their impressive size combined with their flashy yellow-and-black stipes and gorgeous green eyes has earned them some seriously cool common names in the languages of their native range; in Korean they're known as 장수잠자리 ("Jang-su-Jamjari", translating to chief, general or elder dragonfly) while in Japan they're called オニヤンマ ("oniyanma", literally meaning oni dragonfly.)

(Unfortunately, none of my entomological or etymological trivia can explain Yanmamon's apparent ability to spew lightning from its abdomen.)

Yanmamon debuted as an unobtainable enemy Digimon in the 1999 game Digimon World, and hasn't made much in the way of major appearances since. That being said, one did get something of a spotlight in the 2006 anime Digimon Savers/Digimon Data Squad as the recurring mount of choice for a Gottsumon who served as a major early antagonist. A highly respectable means of transportation, if you ask me.

Funbeemon!!!! Fanbeemon in the dub!

Funbeemon’s a Child-level insect digimon, and one of very few examples of such. There’s Tentomon, Kunemon, and Wormmon, and there’s also a robotic beetle called Kokuwamon, but insect digimon are unfortunately quite uncommon in general. They don’t even have their own dedicated “Field” category – they usually either get lumped in with the generic monsters and dinosaurs of the Nature Spirits, or with the plants of the Jungle Troopers. Funbeemon, interestingly, is neither – it’s a Wind Guardian, which is the classification primarily used for birds and other flying creatures. And also plants, sometimes. Digimon’s Field categories are wildly inconsistent and weird, hence why I’ve never actually mentioned them up until now.

But yeah, Funbeemon’s a splendid little bee! I’m not sure what makes it notably more “fun” than your typical bee, but yeah! It probably is fun!!! Normally I’m not fond of when insect creatures end up with generic anime eyes, but Funbeemon does look quite cute with them, and they’re complemented by three occeli! Occeli are small, simple eyes that many flying insects have, usually in sets of three just like with Funbeemon. Funbeemon’s actually quite a good representation of a bee in general, with a more muted color scheme than the typical black and yellow, and a subtle fluffiness that’s surprisingly rare among digimon. Anatomically, it’s actually similar to Tentomon. It has two limbs for standing and a set of four limbs for “arms” – a larger set ending in simple points, and a smaller set ending in more dexterous pincers. For a subtle Digimon-y twist, the stinger is serrated!

Funbeemon is affiliated with something called the Royal Base, an “aerial, covert honey base”. The base is defended by Funbeemon’s most direct evolutions – Waspmon, Cannonbeemon, and Tiger Vespamon, which are all much more imposing than our little friend here. Funbeemon’s role is simply to gather data from flowers and vegetation, then bring them back to the base as raw materials. The exact use of these materials is framed as some huge mystery, but given it’s literally called a honey base and these are a bunch of bees I’m gonna go ahead and assume they’re making honey with it. Just a hunch. While Funbeemon mainly just gathers data, it does have offensive abilities as well – its stinger, for one, and it’s also capable of summoning allies with a technique called “88 Call”. 88 Call apparently being a bee pun – 88 is read as “hachi hachi”, with hachi being the Japanese word for bee!

As a relatively obscure digimon, Funbeemon has no other forms or recolors to speak of. What’s really unfortunate, though, is that it is already an X-Antibody digimon. Many digimon from this era were conceptualized as already possessing the X-Antibody mutation by default, with the unfortunate effect of never being able to receive a proper X-Antibody variation in the future. X-Antibody designs are historically rather hit-or-miss, but the more recent ones have often been pretty outstanding, so it’s a disappointment we likely won’t get another take on this lil bee.

Fortunately, Funbeemon’s pretty great as-is regardless. It would make an excellent partner :3

What I'll remember good of 2019: My newfound liking of bug types

Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill

DigiMonday - GOKIMON (aka Roachmon)

(Adult Level/Virus Attribute/Insect Type)

Every Digimon VPet has at least one deliberately ugly, canonically wimpy "bad" adult-level Digimon that indicates that you've done something wrong when raising a child-level 'mon, and in Digital Monster: Version S (the first Digimon video game, released in 1998 for the Sega Saturn) Gokimon was one such intentionally-awful monster. The exact nature of the screw-up needed to raise a Gokimon, however, made it unique; as they progressed through Version S players could unlock the ability to fuse two child-level Digimon into one of 5 new adult-level Digimon, with each obtainable child-level having different "attributes" that influenced the adult-level they'd become. Fusing Digimon with compatible attributes could get you a Gorimon, Gesomon, Evilmon or Tailmon, but if the Digimon you paired were incompatible (which it seems most combinations were, as the graph below shows) then you'd end up with this nasty little guy.

Note that this figure, as well as all VPet-related info, was taken from directly from Wikimon. Also, don't worry too much about the existence of a poop-attribute Digimon. There are a fair few of those...

Design-wise it goes without saying that Gokimon is based on a cockroach, with its snaggle-toothed expression and apparent habit of defending itself by scattering trash before running away playing into the popular perception of cockroaches as ugly, unhygienic and overall unpleasant creatures (its official description goes so far as to describe real-world roaches as "that most widely reviled of pests.") In realty of the over 4,000 known cockroach species only around 30 have taken to making their homes in our walls, cellars and refuse heaps, and of that 30 only 3 (the American, German and Oriental Cockroaches) are considered major pests internationally; other species enrich their ecosystems by serving as decomposers, burrow-makers and prey for a wide range of vertebrates and larger insects, and some (like the large, wingless and, in my opinion, rather unconventionally cute Madagascar Hissing Cockroach) even make popular pets. While even a relentless insect apologist such as myself can't deny that the roaches that invade our homes cause us problems (eating organic textiles and potentially contaminating food with their saliva, droppings and remains,) even the species considered pests are remarkable in their own ways. Did you know that German Cockroaches host a huge range of enzyme-producing microbes in their guts that allow them to digest almost anything organic, including things like soap or glue? Or that American Cockroaches can flatten their bodies to squeeze through gaps a quarter of their height, and can cover a distance equal to 50 times their body length every second? In the real world there's no such thing as a truly "bad" species; every living thing is just one of countless unique and remarkable outcomes of billions of years of adaptation and specialisation, each with a role to play in the vast biosphere that supports and connects us all...

...

...

...