Geographic variation of esterase isozymes (Est-Fi locus) in Cheumatopsyche infascia (Trichoptera, Hydropsychinae) was studied using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Specimens were collected from ten localities in the Japanese Archipelago. Geographic variation of the esterase pattern was only observed between Honshu Is. and Hokkaido Is. We considered that the result of this study stems the history of this species in the Japanese Archipelago.

View full abstract

Hinomoto new genus and Hinomoto nihonensis new species of the tribe Sogdini are described from Japan. The new genus is characterized by the large body, the pronotum as long as wide, and the slender, and elongate aedeagus.

View full abstract

The appearance of Coleoptera except for Carabidae in three plant communities at the high place of Mt Hakusan was studied by bated pit-fall trap. Seventeen species of Coleoptera were collected. All species of Silphidae were captured only with powdered pupa, and Omosita colon and Homotechnes motschulsky mutsuurai were more captured with sushi-vinegar than with powdered pupa. Species in Pinus community was larger in number than in Phyllodoce and Carex communities. However, the number of individuals found in three plant communities are slightly different from one another. Many species of Staphylinidae were captured in Pinus community, H. motschulsky mutsuurai was mainly captured in Phyllodoce community, and Scepticus insularis was mainly captured in Phyllodoce and Carex communities. The habitat (plant community) preference of the beetles may be different in each species as far as the beetles collected from Mt Hakusan are taken into account.

View full abstract

Ochridacyclops iriomotensis sp. nov. is described from a puddle by the Urauchi River (Iriomote I., the Ryukyu Is, southernmost Japan). This is the fourth species of the genus known in the world, and the second species from Japan. This species is similar to O. nipponensis Karaytug et al., 1996, but easily distinguishable by the longer medialmost terminal seta of the caudal ramus (2.5 times as long as the lateralmost terminal seta versus these setae being subequal).

View full abstract

Five new species of bethylid wasps are described from Colombia: Pseudisobrachium colombianum, P. luisae, Apenesia bicolor, A. formosa, and Dissomphalus catalinae.

View full abstract

The bethylid wasp genus Apenesia Westwood, 1874, of China is treated, and descriptions of three new species, A. sinensis, A. tianmuensis and A. clara are given. Apenesia okinawensis and A. elegans are recorded from China for the first time.

View full abstract

A population of Odontobutis obscura from Goje Island, Korea, was compared genetically with Japanese populations, utilizing 18 allozyme markers. The former was closest (D = 0.184±0.003) to the East Seto group, one of the four geographic groups of Japanese O. obscura, being included in the cluster of East and West Seto groups. Its divergence is likely to have occurred concurrently with the divergence of the two latter groups or their divergence together with the West Kyushu group.

View full abstract

The reduviid genus Ploiaria Scopoli, 1786 is reported from Japan for the first time, and two new species P. ryukyuana and P. takaii are herein described. P. ryukyuana can be distinguished from its allied species P. thetis Wygodzinsky and Usinger by the one basal seta distantly placed from other setae in the anteroventral series of setae of forefemur, etc. P. takaii can be separable from its allied species P. ryukyuana sp. nov. by the midfemur with a wide pale marking apically and so on. They both inhabit grasslands of silver and blady grasses in the Ryukyus.

View full abstract

Four gravid specimens and several fragments of cestodes were found in the small intestine of Eothenomys smithii and E. andersoni, sampled in four different prefectures of Japan. All of the cestode specimens had a scolex without a rostellum and a cirrus armed with short spines, and the embryophore of the hexacanthe showed typical pointed ends. Therefore, the cestodes were identified as Arostrilepis horrida. But, because there is a complicated situation in the systematic position of A. horrida, a brief review of the taxa was presented.

View full abstract