The Japanese Archipelago has been developed to form distinct zones known as Hitozato, Satoyama and Okuyama, and these zones coincide well with the modern concept of sustainable deve lopment of conserved areas, residential and/or transitional areas, buffer zones and core areas. After the so-called Meiji Restoration, some 140 years ago, modernization proceeded rapidly and the Japanese people succeeded in achieving a richness of culture based on material wealth. In developing the Japanese Archipelago in such a modernized way, with modern technology, however, the Japanese spirit of respecting the harmonious co-existence between nature and mankind was set aside. This resulted in severe natural destruction, inviting serious environmental issues such as pollution, endangered species, harmful alien species, and so on. It is hoped that with the aid of this paper the sincere worship of nature by the Japanese people will be recalled and the idea of harmonious co-existence between nature and mankind will be extended throughout the world. This concept should lead to a global understanding of success in developing this, our only earth in a sustainable way.

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Aculeate wasps and bees were surveyed at eleven sandy beeches in northern part of Hyogo prefecture. Nesting aggregations of the sand wasp Bembix niponica were found on four beeches, Kehnohama and eastern edge of Takenohama, Toyooka City, and Mitahama and Hamayasuki, Kami Town. These are first reliable records at the coastal area of Japan Sea in Hyogo prefecture. The sites where Bembix niponica populations were found currently seem to be under considerably strong artificial disturbance, and need some conservation efforts such as enlightening to the local people and tourists to promote the understanding of their ecological values. Other six and four species of aculeate wasps and bees were recorded as coastal inhabitants in Kehnohama and Hamayasuki, respectively. Out of a total of 25 species obtained in both beeches, three were endangered species appeared in national and prefectural red data books. This fact may indicate that sandy beeches in this area are important habitats for sand wasps and bees.

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Acervoschwagerina endoi is systematically described based on two samples from the Midori Valley north of Mt. Uokane, Motosu City, Gifu Prefecture. This species is commonly contained in the pelloid limestone and not associated with any other large-sized fusulines. Acervoschwagerina endoi is one of the diagnostic late Early Permian schwagerinid fusulines in the Jurassic terranes of Japan, especially in the Mino Terrane. All the test characters of the material studied are variable, and show wide morphologic variation that represents the intraspecifi c variation of this species.

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Skinnerella kamiishizuensis sp. nov. and Cuniculinella? isomie (Igo) are systematically described. These two fusulines were collected from conglomeratic limestone exposed at Kamiishizu, south of Sekigahara, Gifu Prefecture, central Japan. They indicate late Early Permian (late Kungurian in the standard time-scale, Bolorian in the Tethyan) by their association with Misellina dyhrenfurthi (Dutkevich). Skinnerella kamiishizuensis is distinguished from the previously described species in having strongly and rather regularly fluted septa throughout the test, indistinct cuniculi, and welldeveloped axial fi lling. This species is assignable to the genus by almost the same test size both in the megalospheric and microspheric forms.

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Age, growth, reproductive season, feeding habit, and dispersion of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides were studied using 202 specimens collected in the Hija River of Okinawa Island from 2005 to 2007. The ages determined by otolith analysis ranged from 0.42 to 3.67 year-old and the mean standard length of 1 year-old individuals was 134 mm and that of 2 year-old ones was 183 mm. They were estimated to breed mostly from January to April by monthly changes in gonadosomatic index and of water temperature. The examination of their stomach contents showed that most of their foods were alien species, such as Oreochromis spp. and Palaemon paucidens, but Monopterus albus, an endangered species in Ryukyu Islands was also found. It was supposed that the largemouth bass reproduced in the Kurashiki Dam Reservoir and a part of them fl owed out with occasional overfl ows from there and dispersed over the whole Hija River system.

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Newly constructed biotopes have been become common for the purpose of nature restoration and ecological education in Japan. One of the problems on biotope management is how to control invasion of alien species. In biotope pools, invasive American crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, gives many impacts to native ecosystems, such as feeding damage on aquatic plants, predation on fi sh and macroinvertebrates, and water leakage through burrowing. More effective collecting method for removing the crayfish is expected by biotope managers. In this study, convenient and inexpensive method for removing the invasive crayfish was tried in an irrigation pond in Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture. To compare effectiveness in collecting crayfi sh among different food items, cage traps with various foods were submerged in the pond for a week. The crayfi sh and other animals collected in the traps were counted. Crab stick and fi sh sausage attracted the most number of crayfi sh, turtles and frogs. We also recommend the dumpling of roasted rice bran as the most effi cient item in terms of price and attractiveness.

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[in Japanese]

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Triassic limestones of the Yakuno Group in the Maizuru Terrane of the Yakuno area consist mostly of ooid grainstone and ooid packstone with many detrital quartz grains. They are closely similar to those of the Hiraki Formation in the Tatsuno-Aioi area in their lithologies, rare occurrence and small size less than 5 m in thickness. These features are also common to those of the shelf limestone blocks of the Kaizawa and Tanoura Formations in the Kurosegawa Terrane. Presence of Meandrospira dinarica, absence of Pilammina densa and much lower taxonomic diversity in the foraminiferal faunas of the Yakuno Group suggest early Anisian (Middle Triassic) age older than those of the Kaizawa and Tanoura Formations.

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[in Japanese]

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A worker honeybee, W151 (43-56 days old), went to and from a feeder located 180 m from the hive entrance and performed 188.5 waggle dances in an observation hive on Nov. 2, 2007. On the next day, W151 started to recruit 4 foragers, who did not perform waggle dances, and whose presence appeared to decrease the number of waggle dances performed by W151. Other dance performances of W151 observed within the observation hive were shaking, tremble dancing, round dancing, and transition dancing. We report on the dance performance of W151 on other days and also when the recruits were experimentally caged and released. We also discuss the genetic background of the bee brain. We observed a time lag of recruitment, starting and ending difficulties in dance performance, and the infl uence on dance performance of recruited foragers. We interpret these results as evidence that the dance performances of honeybees possess physiological aspects which are inconsistent with the “dance language” hypothesis.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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Of the 1,839 specimens collected at Tanba area, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2007, 187 species of 113 genera in 39 families of Bryopsida, 116 species of 47 genera in 28 families of Hepaticopsida, and 3 species in 3 genera in 2 families of Anthocerotopsida enumerated. Among them, four RDB species of Japan and ten RDB species of Hyogo Prefecture were recognized.

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Three ovigerous females and a male of the ectoparasitic isopod Mothocya sp. were found in the stomach contents of a female finless porpoise Neophocaena phocaenoides entangled in a drift net at Mikawa Bay (34°72'N; 137°06'E), Japan. The present finding represents the first record of the genus Mothocya from N. phocaenoides (not as host). The parasites seemed to infect the branchial cavities of host fishes. Moreover, the fishes would be eaten by the finless porpoise. When isopods were found in the stomach contents of the piscivorous whales, we need to distinguish between parasitic and free-living isopods in order to get accurate results of their food habits.

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During the expedition of Kamchatka in July 2007, 4 species of bryophyte and 192 species of vascular plants (including 4 red data plants) were enumerated.

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[in Japanese]

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