2025 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 43-50
We conducted a survey of the odd beetle Thylodrias contractus Motschulsky, 1839 using sticky traps for walking insects in a historical wooden architecture in Kyoto Prefecture, central Honshu, Japan. Ecological knowledge of this species in Japan is lacking; as a result of continued surveys, new findings on its life cycle have been obtained. The results consistently confirmed the presence of T. contractus larvae over multiple years. Only a few adults were obtained from May to June, followed by a noticeable increase in the number of larvae in early summer. This suggests that this species occurred within the survey site, and it is assumed that the increase in collected larvae through early summer is due to adults laying eggs and subsequent hatching of larvae during this period. Especially in the domestic built-up environments of central Honshu, where temperature control is not particularly stringent, we considered that keeping a close eye on the traps installed in early summer (early July) would help control this species.
