Professor Sugiura discovered that even after being swallowed by one of the five frog species above, R.atten-uata individuals are highly likely to escape alive via the cloacal aperture.※Successful escape rates of R.attenuata from 5 frog species.100806040200Percentage of successful escapes from cloacal aperture（％）Hyla japonicaFejervaryakawamuraiGlandiranarugosaPelophylaxporosusPelophylaxnigromaculatusDr. Sugiura graduated from Kyoto University in 2004. Before taking up his current position at Kobe University in 2013, he was a researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute. He has received the 18th Denzaburo Miyadi Award from the Ecological Society of Japan and the Young Scientist Award from the Entomological Society of Japan for his work that has focused on the ecological roles of insects and species interactions. He is interested in insects’ interactions with various other organisms, including plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, fungi and slime molds.SUGIURA Shinji(Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural Science)Interviewee Prole※Sugiura (2020) Current Biology 30: R867-R868Researching insect defense mechanisms Q. What kind of discipline is ecology? Prof. Sugiura: It is generally dened as research into the interactions between organisms and their environment. I am dealing with the interactions between various species and between individuals of the same species.Q. What is the dierence between biology and ecology?Ecology is a branch of biology. I think that most elds of biology involve conducting research on a cellular level and below, for example DNA, however ecology mainly deals with matters on an individual level and above. Of course, ecology also involves studying DNA but it covers an extremely broad range of areas including research into environmental aspects like carbon and nitrogen cycles. My research elds are community ecology, species interactions and behavioral ecology. My research often involves insects, so you could also say that my eld is insect ecology.What is the signicance of researching and teaching ecology at the Graduate School of Agricultural Science?I am a member of the Laboratory of Insect Biodiversity and Ecosystems. The study of insects has always been conducted as part of the eld of agriculture because research into controlling pests has been important for agricultural industries. Consequently, entomology began under the umbrella of agricultural studies and this is why I conduct ecology research using insects.What does researching insect biodiversity and ecology involve?First of all, it involves taxonomy; describing a new species that does not have a scientic name yet. Secondly, it involves biodiversity studies, which includes dening how diverse insects are. Thirdly, it also involves ecology, which consists of describing insect life histories and behaviors. For example, this includes identifying pest insects and natural enemies in a specic area and investigating the structure of insect communities, or which insect species function as pollinators of owering plants.One of the likely reasons that pest populations are increasing is that their natural enemies do not often eat them. Why is this the case? I am interested in how insects defend themselves against their natural enemies, so I conduct research into their defense mechanisms.Are all these research topics related to agriculture?This has always been the case. Actually, some students are moving away from the agricultural angle and conduct research purely on insect ecology. My research on R. attenuata is a result of this movement. I hope that this story entertains ordinary people (laughs).How R. attenuata escape from frogsHave you been researching the ecology of R. attenuata for a long time?No, this discovery happened by chance. Some years ago, I began studying the defensive behaviors of various insect species that live in farmland areas. Up until now, I have provided frogs with over 50 insect species to investigate their defenses against frogs. I place a frog and an insect in a plastic case and observe their interaction. Frogs can catch insects with their tongues in the blink of an eye. In order to investigate what kind of defense mechanism the insect used, and to conrm whether it was eaten or managed to escape, I lm this interaction and then play it back in slow motion. 10
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