Thirty-three new species of the genus Diostracus are described from eastern Nepal based on the collections brought by the Kyushu University Scientific Expedition to the Nepal Himalaya in 1972 and by Mr. J. Emoto in 1981. Three described species included in the collections are also noted. A key to all the named Nepalese species (37 species) is given.

Trophithauma fulvum sp. nov. and T. pellucidum sp. nov. are described and illustrated from Japan. The genus Trophithauma is recorded for the first time from the Palearctic Region.

The wisteria flower bud midge, Dasineura wistariae has been known to produce flower bud galls on Wisteria floribunda (Willd.) DC. and to prevent the buds from opening. In recent years, it has become to receive attention as a pest of ornamental flowers in Hiroshima Prefecture. In order to distinguish the species from other relatives of the genus in Japan, it is redescribed together with details of measurements and setal counts, and the third-stage larva is also described.

Thirty-three species of Japanese and Formosan Noctuid moths belonging to Deltote and its allied genera of Acontiinae are revised in comparison with two European and North American species. Both of the well-known genera, Lithacodia Hübner, 1818 and Eustrotia Hübner, [1821] which have been used extensively in entomological works, are found to be new synonyms of Deltote R. L., 1817. Four new genera, i.e., Protodeltote, Koyaga, Sugia and Pseudodeltote are erected. The phylogenetic relationships among them are discussed.

On the islands of Ainoshima and Kaijima, which are located off the northern coast of the City of Kitakyushu, various vertebrate fossils have been collected including many shark teeth. The age of the bed is considered as the Late Oligocene. There we found at least 13 species of sharks and rays. They are Hexanchus sp. A, Hexanchus sp. B, Carcharodon angustidens, Isurus desori, Odontaspis sp., Cetorhinus sp., Carcharhinus spp., Negaprion sp., Galeocerdo sp., Galeorhinus sp., Squalus sp., Squatina sp., Myliobatis sp. Here we briefly described the specimens representing these species. Oligocene assemblages of elasmobranchs are meager in Japan and the shark fauna from Ainoshima and Kaijima are important to compare with shark faunas from various Miocene deposits which are common around Japan. Crowns of Hexanchus sp. A and H. sp. B, are comparable to H. griseus and H. vitulus, though Oligocene species have much elevated thick roots on the inner surface. Specimens of Carcharodon angustidens include well preserved specimens showing well developed tooth neck as in Carcharodon megalodon. Abundant teeth of Hexanchus which are found with sharks of the upper layer of oceans probably indicate that Hexanchus spp. lived in the upper layer in Oligocene, instead of deep water as in the present day.

Recent studies which drastically changed the systematic position of Oryzias latipes stimulated us to investigate and provide complete osteological illustrations and description of the rice fish which has been one of the most popular fishes in Japan.

The important osteological features of Oryzias latipes Temminck et Schlegel include loss of some elements, and specialization in structures related to feeding and sexual dimorphism. Bony elements lost in Oryzias latipes are parietals, prevomer, infraorbital bones, supraorbitals, intercalars, orbitosphenoid, basisphenoid, 1st and 2nd pleural ribs, ectopterygoids, metapterygoids, 1st pharyngobranchials, upper hypohyals, interhyals, supracleithra, mesocoracoids. Morphological specializations include sexual dimorphism in tooth forms: teeth are larger and fewer in male with robust teeth at the posterior end of the premaxillary. Branchial skeletons have special enlargement of 3rd pharyngobranchials and pharyngeal bones. Number of vertebrae is 27–30 with 11–12 abdominal and 16–18 caudal vertebrae.

More than 80 caves are known from the Hiraodai Karst Plateau of Northern Kyushu. Among them, several caves yield the Quaternary mammalian remains. The materials obtained from eight caves such as Seiryūkutsu Cave, Hirao-ana Cave, Ōhera-ana Cave, Ninjinkubo First Cave, Yakubono-ana Cave, Mejiro-do Cave, Ojika-do Cave and Yoshigatani Third Cave, are examined here. Consequently, 28 forms of mammals are identified as listed in Table 1. The mammalian assemblages of those caves can be roughly divided into the following two groups by faunal composition.

(1) Assemblages composed of mammals which are all extant and now distributed in Kyushu (including some forms which had been extinguished from this district very recently)ꞏꞏꞏꞏꞏꞏHirao-ana Cave, Ōhera-ana Cave, Ninjinkubo First Cave, Yakubono-ana Cave and Ojika-do Cave.

(2) Assemblages which include extinct and/or exotic forms for KyushuꞏꞏꞏꞏꞏꞏSeiryūkutsu Cave, Mejiro-do Cave and Yoshigatani Third Cave.

The age of the assemblages of the group (1) is estimated to be the Holocene by condition of the fossiliferous sediments, degree of fossilization as well as their faunal composition. The assemblages of this group are usually found in vertical caves, and are deposited in the sites just below the entrances of the caves. From taphonomical point of view, these caves might have functionated as natural trap.

Among the caves of the group (2), the only one extinct form is known from the assemblages of Mejiro-do Cave and Yoshigatani Third Cave respectively; Sinomegaceros sp. from the former, and Sus nipponicus Matsumoto from the latter. But other forms associated are the same ones as distributed now in Kyushu. The age of the assemblages of these caves is considered to be any time between the Early Holocene and the Late Pleistocene.

The assemblage of Seiryūkutsu Cave of the group (2) is composed of 12 forms of mammals. Among them, 9 forms are now distributed in Kyushu, but Palaeoloxodon naumanni (Makiyama) and Anourosorex cf. japonicus Shikama et Hasegawa are extinct, and Sorex cf. shinto Thomas is exotic for Kyushu. Therefore the age of this assemblage is assumed to be the Late Pleistocene. As the occurrences of Anourosorex and Sorex are the first records from Kyushu, the detailed descriptions of them are given.

Two caudal vertebrae of a dugongid sirenia are reported from the Late Oligocene Ashiya group, northern Kyushu, Japan. Among rather rare occurrences of sirenian in Japan, Ashiya specimen is the oldest in them, and also the oldest in the Pacific coast. Sirenian had already migrated to the Pacific Ocean at the end of the Oligocene.