Clockbug

The clockbug, or eupcaccia, is a fictional insect created by Japanese writer Kōbō Abe that features in his 1984 novel, The Ark Sakura.

The clockbug is an insect species whose legs have atrophied, mobility being unnecessary for its existence since it lives by consuming its own feces, merely using its antennae to rotate in a counter-clockwise fashion, continuously manifesting a circular trail of excretion and ingestion.

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.

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.