I read it. For you, insects are the most interesting and important thing right now. I can understand your feelings because when I was a child, insects were all over my head.

When I was about Ishida's age, I raised swallowtail butterflies as a summer vacation research project. I collected eggs, and after a while, when the larvae emerged from the eggs, I raised them on tangerine leaves, and the larvae molted several times, turning from black to green, and then becoming a pupa. So I wanted to know what was happening inside the pupa. It was cruel, but I opened the pupa. Do you know what's inside a pupa?

Yes. The larvae had no shape and had turned into a black, sticky liquid. I was so surprised that I couldn't help but wonder, "How did this turn into a butterfly? What was in that black, sticky liquid?" Then, I left the other pupae alone without opening them, and eventually a swallowtail butterfly emerged from them. At first, its wings were crumpled, but gradually they grew straight, and it became a magnificent swallowtail butterfly and flew off into the sky. This dramatic transformation from larva to pupa to butterfly filled me with surprise and curiosity about the mysteries of nature and life, and the power to be deeply moved by nature, in other words, a "sense of wonder." This triggered my desire to learn more about insects, and I began my research.

When I was a child, we didn't have the ability to search for information on the computer like we do today, so I would first read picture books and learn about Japanese insects, noting, "There are these insects, and there are those insects." Once I had acquired this knowledge, I would actually look for those insects in nature. I also raised swallowtail butterflies from eggs and kept records of my observations, such as how much leaf the larvae ate and how many days the pupa period lasted.
You know that butterfly larvae have their favorite leaves, and won't eat anything else, depending on the species. Swallowtail butterflies like tangerines and pepper, but I didn't have a large enough yard to grow those trees at home, so I had to find them somewhere. This was difficult. I found a tangerine tree at someone else's house and was quietly picking the leaves, but the person in the house found me and got angry. I was in a difficult situation, so I asked my mother for advice, and she went with me to the house and asked me to share my tangerine leaves. So the next day, I was able to get tangerine leaves with confidence.

That's a great idea. It makes sense that there are individuals with slightly different growth cycles mixed together so that they don't all die out at once in the event of a natural disaster. In the past, oddballs that were born by chance had an advantage in surviving, and those characteristics have continued to this day.
In experiments and research, you won't find anything unless you do a certain amount of work, so it's important that Ishida observed 30 pupae. I also think it's great that his father is thinking about it with him. I hope you'll make various discoveries in collaboration with your father.

There are many things we can learn from insects. Among them, I would like to tell you two things today.
First of all, we mentioned earlier that each butterfly species has its own diet. For example, the common machaon eats parsley and carrot leaves, while the musk swallowtail eats horsetail, which grows in riverbeds. And this is not limited to butterflies; many herbivorous insects that feed on plants limit what they eat. This shows that insects are good at dividing up nature. In other words, insects do not take everything for themselves, but live altruistically, thinking about other life forms. It makes us reflect on our human greed, believing that all other life forms are there for us and trying to get everything we have.
Secondly, when we observe a single insect, we realize that its life is connected to the whole of nature in many ways. For example, fireflies. Firefly larvae eat shellfish. Shellfish eat algae. If the stream is not shallow and clear with plenty of sunlight, no algae will grow and no shellfish will be found. Currently, rivers throughout Tokyo are underground channels, or culverts, but if they go underground and the surface of the flowing water is not visible, fireflies will no longer be able to grow. That is how nature is connected.
One time, something like this happened. I was trying to save a bee that was caught in a spider's web, but the bee stung me. Because bees die when they sting their enemies, my actions not only killed the bee, but also destroyed the web, causing trouble for the spider, and I also felt pain. I think it taught me that forcibly interfering with the natural world will not produce anything. These things I learned from insects as a child are still the basis of my view of life and nature today.

This is the first time I've seen it. It's beautiful.

I started researching plants that insects like and became interested in plants.

What is important to become an insect scientist?

Thank you very much. Please give a message to the students studying at Aoyama.

I'll look into it as soon as I get home. Thank you.