Abstract

This book is about watching insects and learning how to live from them.

When you hear the word "senpai" (senior), whose face comes to mind? Senior members of a club, a company ...... would never think of insects. But as living things on earth, insects are much, much older than humans.
Humans were born about 7 million years ago. Insects, on the other hand, were born about 480 million years ago. Insects have been surviving on the earth for about 500 million years before humans appeared.

Insects have a very large number of species. While mammals, including humans, have about 6,000 species, there are about 1 million species of insects. Therefore three-quarters of all living things on earth are insects. Moreover, new species are still being discovered every year, and it is said that if we continue to discover and record new species at the current pace, it will take another 500 years to record all insects. Insects are the most prosperous living things on the planet.

The story in the book is set in a wooded area in the summer.
Taro, a young man who is having trouble with his relationships at work and struggling with his way of life, meets talking insects and learns "the most natural way to live" from them, who are his "seniors'' as living creatures.

Author’s Information

[Illustrator] Jueki Toro(1988-)
His occupation is Illustrator, artist and cartoonist.
Winner of the Audience Prize at SICF16 and the 19th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art. He produces various works using familiar insects as motifs.

[Writer] Pezuru
Writer. His books are “I wish I could talk to insects” and ”I wish I could talk to turtles”, and so on.

[Editor] Kenji Suda
Representative of the Musashino Natural History Study Group. He is active in activities to teach children about insects at the Tamarokuto Science Center and the Musashino Nature Club.