The Lady Who Loved Insects (虫めづる姫君) is a Japanese short story by an unknown author, recorded in the 12th century collection Tales of the Riverside Middle Counselor (堤中納言物語).
It centers on the titular woman, who is more interested in spending time with insects instead of courting and her physical appearance, leading her to be mocked by her peers. She spends more time with boys who share the same interest as her. And despite everyone else's disgust, a certain captain takes interest in the lady, admiring her oddity. The tale ends abruptly, promising it will be continued in the "next scroll", but no records were ever found for it.
Tropes:
- All of the Other Reindeer: The protagonist gets ridiculed for spending time with insects and bugs. While her family and peers do find her profundity on vermins astounding, they still view her as disgusting for keeping them as pets.
- Boys Like Creepy Critters: The protagonist is the only woman who loves to spend time with vermin, meanwhile all the other women are frightened by them. Which is why her only human companions are boys who share the same interest as her.
- Friend to Bugs: The protagonist admires bugs and other sorts of vermins. She spends most of her time studying them and taking care of them to the point she rejects her own looks, which is why she gets ridiculed by her peers.
- The Noun Who Verbed: It is called "The Lady Who Loved Insects".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We never get to know the protagonist's boy companions' real names, but whatever they are, she finds them boring and decides to call them by insect related names, such as Mole Cricket Boy, Locust Man, and Centipede.
- Pretty Butterflies: Almost everyone admires butterflies for their beauty. However, the protagonist is more interested in caterpillars and studying how they become butterflies, meanwhile most people around her find her weird for it. They question why she would keep ugly caterpillars and other vermins as pets instead of beautiful butterflies, and she states that butterflies would make terrible pets.
