The present work deals with carbonate petrofacics and interpretation of paleodepositional environments of carbonate rocks represented in the successive fusuline biozones of the Permian Akasaka Limestone of Japan. The study shows that the carbonate rocks of the Akasaka Limestone would have been developed in an open marine shelf in reladon with sea level oscillations giving rise to two shallowing-upward sequences. On the other hand, a new idealized paleogeographic model is proposed on the basis of dissimilarities in faunal composition and species diversity gradient between the Akasaka Limestone and Akiyoshi Limestone. It is concluded that the two limestone buildups situated at different paleo-latitudes would have been conveyed to the Asian continent being diagonally accross the latitudes, rather than parallel, so that they would have passed the tropical zone at different times and, as a result, different timings of species diversity and opposite species diversity gradients would have been evoked between the two coeval faunas of the buildups.

Insect specimens collected by P. F. von Siebold and H. Bürger with Japanese collaborators during their stay in Japan (1823–1829, 1825–1835) are reported on the basis of the collection preserved in Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden, the Netherlands. A total 439 species (1,047 specimens) of the insects are listed and some of them are Figured. It is a scientifically important insect collection that reflects the old but rich Japanese insect fauna of circa the First half of the 19th century and includes many type-specimens. This is the First comprehensive report of the collection.

189 species (522 specimens) of Coleoptera are listed and figured in the second part of the report. Lectotype specimes of 4 nominal species-group taxa Dorcus niponensis S. v. Vollenhoven, 1861, Dorcus pilifer S. v. Vollenhoven, 1861, Eurytrachelus rubrofemoratus S. v. Vollenhoven, 1865 and Apoderus pardalis S. v. Vollenhoven, 1865 are newly designed.

Wakinoichthys aokii was found from the Nagdong Subgroup of the Gyeongsang Group in a southern part of Korea. The species was first described from the Wakino Subgroup of the Kanmon Group from Kitakyushu, Japan in 1994. This is the first record from Korea other than the type locality. The existence of the species in both Japan and Korea suggests that the Nagdong Subgroup of the Gyeongsang Group and the Wakino Subgroup of the Kanmon Group are deposited at almost the same age.

Cycadocarpidium cone scales are common in the Late Triassic floras in North ern Hemisphere. Many unique coniferous scales and their fragments assignable to the Cycadocarpidium were newly collected from the Nariwa Group. They are character ized by having bract-scales each with only two veins and three small-sized triangular ovuliferous scales and three ovules (seeds). These features are so unique that we herewith propose Cycadocarpidium binerivium sp. nov. Many Podozamites leafy shoots are known from just above the present Cycadocarpidium bed, but both organs are not in organic connection.

Species composition, diameter at breast height (dbh) distribution of major woody species and canopy gap characteristics were investigated in a secondary ever green broad-leaved forest located at late developmental stages, which was isolated from surrounding matrix. Maximum dbh of each species in this forest was smaller than that in the old-growth forests. Gaps created in the forest had positive correlations to dbh of gap-makers. Those gaps were smaller in area and lower in density than those in old-growth ones owing to the smallness of the stems of gap-makers. Thus, the dif ferences in natural disturbance regimes among forests might pardy be explained by the differences in stand structure. Patterns of dbh distributions and seedling emergence suggested that some species showed different regeneration behavior between the forest and the old-growth ones: Distylium racemosum, Persea thunbergii, Camellia japonica and Eurya japonica maintained their population by the same regeneration behavior both in the forest and the old-growth forests, although Castanopsis cuspidata, Quercus salicina and Zanthoxylum schinifolium regenerated by different ways to the old-growth ones.