- Hashtag "#昆虫" returned 25 results.
Look at this cool moth. I saw it on the station platform today. A station attendant watched me while I was taking a photo of it. He probably thought, “Strange foreigner...” Lol. I don`t mind.
Vocabulary:
See, look at, watch の使い方はちょっと違います.
- See: 見かける感じ
- Look at: (ちゃんと/じっと)眺める, 見る感じ
- Watch: 動いているものを、しばらく見る感じ
![Butterfly Colle...]()
This is a photo of a Common Grass Yellow butterfly that I found at Lake Biwa.
A couple of months ago I posted a podcast about butterfly collecting:
https://bohmeenglish.podbean.com/e/the-bohme-english-podcast-18-ottos-hobby/
This is a transcript (書き取り)of it. Please listen & read:
In Japan, a lot of kids – especially boys – are interested in catching & keeping rhinoceros beetles (カブトムシ) and stag beetles (くわがた虫). In Australia though, they`re not so popular and I never collected them when I was a kid. However I was into collecting butterfly for a while. I don`t remember exactly when or how I got into it, but my house had a big yard, with trees and bushes and flowers, so I guess I noticed the different types of butterflies which came through, and that got me interested.
What I do remember is my mum encouraging me, and helping me to research the best way to catch, kill and display them. Remember, this is before the internet, so we had to do this using library books, encyclopedias and of course trial and error. Oh, and my dad made me a big butterfly net, which I though was fantastic. Looking back now, I wonder if they were just desperate for me to stop collecting Kiss cards and fins a new, nicer hobby. Anyway, I really enjoyed keeping an eye out for butterflies that I didn`t have in my collection. Little by little I learnt which ones preferred which flowers, their flying habits, and even what time of day they were likely to be found.
I had special flat boxes with clear tops which I kept them in. Unfortunately, even though I put mothballs (防虫剤) in the boxes, like the books advised, my butterflies eventually became damaged & rotten, so I had to throw them away.
So that was the end of that hobby, although when I came to Japan as an adult, I noticed various butterflies that I had never seen growing up in Australia. And then I went to Okinawa, and wow – I saw some really impressive butterflies there. So that re-ignited my interest in butterflies. I also have a Japanese friend who collects butterflies, so whenever I go to Okinawa or somewhere & see an unusual or pretty butterfly, I paint a picture of it on a postcard and send it to him. Later, he replies to say thank you & tell me the name & some information about that butterfly.
So, yeh, although I don`t collect butterflies anymore, I definitely still get a kick out of spotting new or unusual ones. And who knows? Maybe one of my kids will want to start a butterfly collection one day. If so, I`ll definitely encourage them & give them a hand, just like my parents did with me.
I found a few of these fancy-looking caterpillars on my blackberry bush. I pulled them off & threw them to my chickens, but they didn`t fancy them. Well, I don`t fancy having them in my garden, so I squashed (押しつぶす) them.
Vocabulary:
* fancy 形容詞 = ファンシー
** fancy 動詞 = want / like / want to
Do you like The Carpenters? How about carpenter bees? I found this one pollinating my lime tree. I hope the chickens don`t eat it.
Vocabulary:
pollen = 花粉
pollinate = 受粉する
花粉症 (pollen allergy) = hayfever
I`ve seen a couple of these small butterflies in the last couple of days. In English, it`s called a Common Copper*. It`s on a yellow rapeseed flower (菜の花).
* copper (Cu) = 銅
Vocabulary:
- 'A couple of ___s' = 2 or 3 ___s
Last summer I found a chrysalis & kept it ...& kept it ...& kept it, all winter. I wondered if it was okay... Finally, this week a common swallowtail butterfly came out. After a while drying in the sun, it flew off. Bye bye, butterfly!
Vocabulary:
- birds, butterflies etc: fly off/away
- people, legged animals, etc.: run off/away
- fish, mermaids, etc.: swim off/away
A couple of weeks ago I found a green swallowtail (揚羽) cocoon in my garden: http://en.bloguru.com/otto/294414/green-cocoon . While I was gardening on Sunday, I found two brown ones. One of them was in an interesting place - can you see?
Some people think cocoons like this are creepy (気色悪い) & gross (気持ち悪い), but I think... well, yes, I agree they are kind of creepy & gross, but they are interesting too.
Do you have a garden? Do you like gardening?
Vocabulary:
- garden = にわ gardening = にわいじり, にわづくり
Sometimes I check the lime tree in my garden for insects, damage, etc. Today I was surprised to find this green cocoon on it. It must have been there since sometime last year. Usually swallowtail cocoons are brown, but sometimes they`re green. I guess this butterfly will come out sometime this Spring. I hope to see it.
Vocabulary:
- Sometime = いつか
- Sometimes = ときどき
At the end of last month I found this eye-catching caterpillar at the end of a vine (蔓草) in my garden. I expected it to become a colourful butterfly, but in the end, it just became a brown hawk-moth (雀蛾, hawk = 鷹 moth = 蛾). I was a bit disappointed.
Vocabulary:
- at the end (of 時) = 最後(終わり)
- at the end (of 所)= 先, 端, 突き当たり
- in the end = 結局
Besides colorful tropical fish, there were also a lot of beautiful butterflies to see on Miyako Island. While we were driving, I saw heaps of big black swallowtail butterflies (swallow = 燕 tail = 尻尾, so swallowtail butterfly = 揚羽) beside the road. Great! I also saw a big dead snake beside the road. Gross! ( キモい )
Vocabulary:
Be careful: besides = 其れに, その他 beside = 傍ら, 側
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