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5[[caption-width-right:350: "It's a common bluebottle! I'll put it in a rare green jar!"]]
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10A pastime for kids (ages 5-10) to do during the summer. It's kind of like fishing to see who catches the most and release at the end of the day. If the kid doesn't release the bug, it may lead to AndCallHimGeorge. Bug-catching nets are a must.
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12This hobby is mostly a boys' and {{Tomboy}} thing since BoysLikeCreepyCritters, although there are a few surprises. Extremely popular in Japan.
13
14See also BeetleManiac and FriendToBugs.
15
16----
17!!Examples:
18[[foldercontrol]]
19
20[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21* A few ''Manga/CrayonShinChan'' strips shows the titular character and his friends -- usually Masao, a nature lover, and Buu, who's just there to tag-along -- leisurely catching bugs and competing with other kids from their school. Most of the times Shin would dress himself up as insects (usually stag beetles or rhino beetles) to "fool their prey", and in one episode Shin and friends ends up competing in a bug-catching contest with a third-grade girl from another school who inevitably gets caught in Shin's usual antics.
22* Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'s cicada hunt has appeared in a few chapters; she released them inside the house.
23%%* Manga/StrawberryMarshmallow
24* In ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'', an early story arc has the Yorozuya gang go on a beetle hunt, partly to try making some money, and partly so Kagura can get her revenge on Okita by finding a beetle that can beat his in a fight. It ends up turning into SeriousBusiness due to the Shinsengumi showing up in search of the shogun's prized golden stag beetle.
25* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' shows that Shino has this as a hobby.
26* One story of ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' has the gang try this as yet another attempt at getting out of their PerpetualPoverty (stag beetles apparently sell for a lot of money). Predictably, it leads to yet another corpse (with its eyes pecked out and apparently having fallen from a tree). The culprit this time was [[spoiler:a parasite that normally affects snails, causing their antennae to bulge out and climb high to attract passing birds so the parasite can reproduce)]].
27* ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' had a chapter where [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Youko]], [[KidFromTheFuture Rin]], and [[FallenAngel Karen]] decide to go out and catch rhinoceros beetles, but unfortunately they're all [[TheDitz ditzes]] and end up falling asleep too early two nights in a row while [[OnlySaneMan Asahi]] stays awake the entire time. From there it goes off completely into the series' usual off-the-wall comedy and ended with an exhausted Asahi falling asleep in a [[StockShoutOuts Stock Shout-Out]] to ''Manga/TomorrowsJoe''.
28* Like in the games, Nate from ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' is fond of doing this with his friends Eddie, Bear, and Katie.
29* Kanna is seen hunting for bugs as part of her summer homework in episode 7 of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid''. [[spoiler:Being [[ExtremeOmnivore Kanna]], she just eats them whole and writes down what they tasted like rather than collect them with the net she's carrying.]]
30* In Chapter 7 of ''Manga/IWantYourMotherToBeWithMe'', Ryo goes with Yuzuki and her son Asahi to catch bugs, and end up catching a large beetle that Asahi keeps as a pet.
31* Occasionally referenced in ''Manga/OnePiece'', particularly in the Jaya Arc, where [[CloudCuckoolander Luffy]] likens catching a Hercules beetle to [[MythArc finding One Piece itself]]. [[BrickJoke At the arc's very end, he succeeds in catching one]], and gifts it to the Saruyama Alliance as thanks for preparing the crew for Skypiea.
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Comic Strips]]
35* ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes often go out looking for bugs or "anything weird."
36* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' frequently features lepidopterists chasing butterflies, including one strip featuring a horde of them chasing a single [[AttackOfthe50FootWhatever Godzilla-sized butterfly.]]
37* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': Jason and Marcus often do this, so as to have a ready supply of critters with which to annoy Paige.
38[[/folder]]
39
40[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41* In ''Film/TheClassic'', during their time together at the river, Joon-ha catches one of the fireflies as a gift for Joo-hee. [[spoiler:This is repeated in the ending, as Ji-hye sits in the same position on the bridge over the river that her mother did when Sang-min catches a firefly for her.]]
42* In ''Film/{{Lucas}}'' starring Creator/CoreyHaim, the title boy spends his summers out in the woods, catching bugs, tadpoles, frogs, crawfish, and other creepy crawlies, just for the fun of it.
43* Looks like one of the only hobbies Shilo from ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' has while imprisoned in her room.
44* The Professor in ''Film/WayDownEast'' spends most of his time chasing butterflies with a large net, a frequent source a physical comedy.
45* Tomer from ''Film/{{Mabul}}'' is obsessed with bugs. He spends most of his time catching them. Miri buys him containers so he can store them. Some of them escape one night, and when Yoni wakes up, he's horrified to find his mattress infested with bugs.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Literature]]
49* In ''Literature/{{It}}'', one of the summer pastimes undertaken by the children is catching insects, frogs, and other creepy crawlies in the Barrens.
50* In the Creator/DrSeuss book ''Summer'', one of the joys of summer for kids is catching fireflies in jars.
51* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'', Tom and his friends regularly catch frogs and snakes just for the fun of it.
52* In ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'', competitive cicada catching is one of the activities Haruhi insists that the SOS Brigade do during the "Endless Eight" arc. Though, as Kyon [[LampshadeHanging points out]], they're in high school and thus are too old to still be doing it.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
56* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E4TheRuthlessPursuitOfBloodWithAllA ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding]]", the young fledgling Claudia catches a firefly in a jar during a rowboat ride with Louis and seals the lid. She admires the glowing insect for a few minutes before letting it go.
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:Pinball]]
60* ''[[Pinball/LexyLightspeed Lexy Lightspeed - Escape from Earth]]'': Shooting the left orbit allows Lexy to collect assorted Earth insects.
61[[/folder]]
62
63[[folder:Video Games]]
64* The Bug Catcher trainer class in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' is explicitly based off this trope, and naturally specialize in using Bug-type Pokémon. ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and their remakes also feature Bug Maniacs, who are older than the child-aged Bug Catchers and use higher-level and stronger Bug Pokémon. The creator of ''Pokémon'', Satoshi Tajiri, was an avid bug catcher himself when he was a kid and based the series around his childhood hobby of collecting wild beetles and having them fight against other kids' beetles.
65* You'll spend a lot of time doing this in the various incarnations of ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'', especially in summer. The games contain a large amount of insects to catch. You can sell them for money, give them to villagers as presents, donate them to the local museum, or decorate your house in them. Starting with ''Wild World'', villagers will sometimes race you to see who can find a specific bug the fastest.
66* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
67** The Bug Net in the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' and its {{Interquel}} ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' is reminiscent of this (you can even catch bees and other insects with it as well as the fairies that return in later games). Later games even have bug collecting sidequests.
68** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', bugs can be caught with empty bottles and, if released on certain patches of land for planting bean seeds, will yield Golden Skulltulas.
69** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', there are 24 golden bugs that can be caught and given to a little girl named Agitha in exchange for Rupees and a wallet upgrade.
70** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', the Bug Net makes a comeback and bugs caught with it can be given to an NPC in order to improve Link's potions.
71** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', bugs can be used to make armor upgrades as well as different kinds of elixirs and beetles can be traded to [[LegacyCharacter Beedle]] in exchange for food and elixirs. In addition, a few sidequests in the game require collecting certain bugs for different {{NPC}}s.
72* The player does this every once in a while in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''. The bugs come in handy for making various types of items, from medicines and fish bait to electric monster traps.
73* In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', Sims can catch bugs. They even get a collection box with pictures of the species they've caught. Sims can also catch bugs and put them on display in ''VideoGame/TheSims3''.
74* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonANewBeginning'' has bug catching, and you can actually make a good amount of money depending on what you catch. You can also use the different types of bees you catch to cultivate honey back on the farm.
75* In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'', Sig is absolutely fascinated by bugs to the point of considering them SeriousBusiness, and he is often seen wanting to catch some. His scenario in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo20thAnniversary 20th Anniversary]]'' is about Amitie trying to help him find a solution when he realizes he can't catch bugs with his [[RedRightHand demon claw]].
76* Bug catching appears a lot in ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch''. At the start of the [[VideoGame/YokaiWatch1 first game]], the protagonist and their friends are looking for bugs when they come across Whisper. A lot of [=NPCs=] also mention bug catching. The game feature mini-games where you can catch bugs and {{fish|ingMinigame}}.
77* The first page of a {{storybook|Opening}} at the very beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' shows the young protagonist brothers Cuphead and Mugman catching some bugs with the Elder Kettle in the forest (as Cuphead indicates by holding a bug-catching net).
78* One of the main goals in ''VideoGame/ElroyGoesBugzerk'' is to catch a rare beetle.
79* The ''VideoGame/BokuNoNatsuyasumi'' series, although primarily 1970s summer vacation simulators, features bug catching as one of its main characteristics: a few of them, mostly beetles, can be pitted in sumo matches on a makeshift ''dohyō'' ring (usually a tambourine). It is one of the areas where the developers have really ShownTheirWork, as the games progress over the month of August, the summer bugs that Boku can catch gradually die out and give way to autumn bugs in accordance with how it would roughly happen in real life.
80* Game Boy's ''Konchuu Hakase'' series was probably one of the first video games exclusively dedicated to the hobby. They shifted genre from overhead games a la Pokemon to action-adventure titles. There are also many other bug-catching themed games, such as Game Boy Color's ''Get Mushi Club'', Playstation's ''Mushi Taro'', Game Boy Advance's breeding sim ''Minna no Shiiku'' series (Kabuto and Kuwagata) and ''Konchuu no Mori no Daibouken'', Playstation 2's ''Simple 2000 Series Vol. 83: The Konchuu Saishuu'' or ''Simple DS Vol. 3: The Mushitori Oukoku''
81* Game Boy Advance's ''GET! Boku no Mushi Tsukamaete'' is an mystery / adventure game with an important bug-catching feature.
82* Nintendo DS' ''Mushi: Machi no Konchuu Monogatari'' is both a CardBattleGame and a bug-catching game.
83* ''Simple DS Series Vol. 16: The Sagasou: Fushigi na Konchuu no Mori'' had the strange concept of catching bugs after battling with them with the protagonists [[IncredibleShrinkingMan having their same size]].
84* Playstation's ''Battle Konchuuden'' and Nintendo DS game ''Drone Tactics'' (''Konchuu Wars'') mixed this trope's theme with ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars''-styled TurnBasedStrategy games - especially the latter with AnimalMecha.
85* In the remake of ''VideoGame/Persona4'', the player can get a bug-catching net partway into the story, incidentally after learning one of the children at the local shrine lost theirs. Said child, after retrieving it for him, will actively point to one of the trees as a gathering spot for bugs, which need to be caught with good timing. Said bugs can be used for fishing.
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:Western Animation]]
89* In ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'', [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick go jellyfishing all the time.
90* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'':
91** In "The Brood", Craig's grandfather collects the molted skins of seventeen-year cicadas. When Craig breaks one, he makes it his mission to get a new one.
92** In "Summer Wish", the Creek Kids collect fireflies on the first night of summer so they can make a wish, then release them so it comes true. Craig can't decide on his wish and keeps his firefly until he can think of what to wish for; when it rains for several days afterwards, he comes to believe it's his fault for not releasing the firefly.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Real Life]]
96* The naturalist Gerard Durell's autobiography, ''Literature/MyFamilyAndOtherAnimals'', details the author's childhood (and continuing) obsession with nature, and the many different species he collected as a child.
97* During UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar, one of Robert Baden-Powell's favourite cover stories when he was spying was as a butterfly collector. Not only did seeing this grown man chasing butterflies seem so innocent to the Boers that they didn't realize that he only seemed to find ones around their fortifications interesting, but he could disguise his maps in the pictures of the ones he caught.
98* UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin was an avid insect collector. In one famous incident, he was coming home from an afternoon of collecting when he happened across a bombardier beetle. As his pockets were full, he attempted to carry it in his mouth, only to get a firsthand experience with its defensive abilities. [[NightmareFetishist He gleefully recounted the tale in his diary.]]
99[[/folder]]

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