This list contains a total of 223 species and 41 subspecies (including 22 nominotypical subspecies) classified in seven superfamilies, 29 families, 42 subfamilies and 62 genera recorded from Japan. The information on scientific name, Japanese name, and domestic distribution is given for each species and subspecies. The Japanese name for every taxonomic name is given due to its common use in Japan.

View full abstract

To obtain selective pesticides that are harmless to the predatory mite, Neoseiulus longispinosus, native to Thailand, we tested the toxicity of 29 pesticides on the predatory mite by the leaf-dip method. All pesticides were examined at the concentrations used in the fields of Thailand. The results immediately after dipping the leaf in pesticide showed that fenbutatin oxide, buprofezin, fenobucarb, imidacloprid, dinotefuran, validamycin, carbendazim and sulfur were selective pesticides, harmless to adult females, eggs and immatures of N. longispinosus. These chemicals are expected to be promising pesticides on IPM crops in Thailand, where N. longispinosus is the major natural enemy of spider mites.

View full abstract

Ten mite species of the genus Macrocheles (Acari: Macrochelidae) were collected from the body surface of dung beetles (Scarabaeidae) in Papua, Indonesia, providing the first record of the genus for the area. Of these, five species, Macrocheles erniae, M. kojimai, M. manokwariensis, M. timikaensis, and M. woroae, were described as new to science. The remaining five species were M. agilis, M. borealis, M. limue, M. merdarius, and M. sp. aff. glaber.

View full abstract

The effects of predacious insects on the population dynamics of three spider mite species, Amphitetranychus viennensis, Tetranychus urticae, and Panonychus citri, which are serious pests infesting the Japanese pear, were compared by experimentally introducing each spider mite species onto Japanese pear trees in an orchard. A. viennensis and T. urticae immediately decreased in density after the introduction, because the density of predacious insects, Scolothrips takahashii and Feltiella sp., increased steeply. In contrast, P. citri increased rapidly, reaching a maximum number of 37.9 adult females per leaf 15 days after introduction, because of the lack of immediate response of the predators, and thereafter decreased abruptly with the occurrence of voracious predacious insects, Oligota spp. and Stethorus japonicus. Another experiment in which the predators were excluded by bagging shoots was also carried out, with the result that the densities of all the spider mite species increased. These results confirmed that predacious insects suppressed the density of spider mites in different fashions: against A. viennensis and T. urticae, even when they were at low densities, the predacious insects responded swiftly, whereas against P. citri, predacious insects occurred only when the spider mite density became high.

View full abstract

Two new feather mite species belonging to the genus Montesauria Oudemans, 1905 (Analgoidea: Proctophyllodidae: Pterodectinae), which were found in thrushes on the genus Zoothera Vigors, 1832 (Passeriformes: Turdidae) in Japan, are described: Montesauria aurea n. sp. from the White's thrush Zoothera aurea toratugumi (Momiyama, 1940) and M. sibirica n. sp. from the Siberian thrush Z. sibirica davisoni (Hume, 1877). The two new species belong to an unnamed species group (Park and Atyeo, 1971) that is characterized by the lack of setae f2 in both sexes and by having ventral apophysis on genu IV in males and spindle like setae h2 in females.

View full abstract