Annie’s mom, an esteemed entomologist, knows a lot about bugs. Her ten-year-old Japanese pen pal might know more. 

Annie Rosenthal is an editor at Signal Hill and the Virginia Spencer Davis fellow at High Country News. 

Annie reported and produced this story, with additional production from Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach, and sound design by Liza Yeager. It was edited by Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach, with help from Lio Wong, Omar Etman, and the Issue One cohort.

Fact checking by Alan Dean.

Music in this story is from Blue Dot Sessions, with additional music from the Signal Hill music library, which (so far) includes original work by Clara E. Brill, J. Mamana, Ethan Philbrick and Jackson Roach.

Special thanks to Carlos Morales, Marfa Public Radio, John Lill, Jo Nagai, Saeko Nagai, Hayato Nagai, Tomoki Nagai, Martha Weiss, Josh Rosenthal, Isabel Rosenthal, and Harrison Smith.

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