Cinusa nippon Nagasawa（Isopoda: Cymothoidae）, a marine parasite infesting the buccal cavities of coastal puffers, is newly recorded from the Pacific coasts of central Japan. A pair consisting of a mature female and mature male, and six mancae and a juvenile, were collected from reared vermiculated puffer, Takifugu snyderi（Abe）（Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae）, in an aquarium and a museum, respectively. The present paper provides a description of the morphological characters of these cymothoids, including their immature stages, and molecular analysis using 16S rRNA for C. nippon and related species. In the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree, C. nippon was included in the clade of Ceratothoa Dana and corresponds to Ceratothoa sp. 2 reported in another study. These suggest that the relationship between Cinusa Schioedte and Meinert and Ceratothoa needs to be re-examined. Furthermore, the morphological study showed that these cymothoid mancae are similar to Manca type 2 known from zoo-plankton, provided in one of our previous reports.

Some species of mycophagous gall midges（Diptera: Cecidomyiidae）exhibit paedogenesis and are regarded as serious pests of mushroom cultivation. In Japan, Mycophila speyeri and Heteropeza pygmaea were previously found to infest the mycelia of mushrooms in indoor cultivation factories, but the occurrence of paedogenetic species in natural habitats was not previously reported. During field surveys, we first found paedogenetic gall midges in natural habitats, such as decayed trunks and branches on the forest floor in Japan. Based on morphological examinations of larvae as well as adults of some species, we confirmed the occurrence of paedogenetic gall midges belonging to at least five genera as follows: Miastor, Mycophila, Heteropeza, Heteropezula, and Leptosyna. These gall midges were found on white-rot but not on brown-rot fungi in the field. These results indicate that wood-decaying fungi responsible for white rotting trunks and branches harbor diverse paedogenetic gall midges on the forest floor in Japan.

To evaluate the dietary antioxidant content of insects, we analyzed the hydrophilic oxygen radical absorbance capacity（H-ORAC） of silkworms（Bombyx mori Linnaeus）, and rice grasshoppers（Oxya yezoensis Shiraki）, which have been used as edible insects in Japan for many years, and Japanese buff-tip moths, Phalera flavescens（Bremer et Grey）, which feed on cherry blossom tree leaves. Among these three insects, the H-ORAC value was highest（7455±185 µmol Trolox eq./100 g FW）in O. yezoensis adults, followed by B. mori pupae（4417.5±270.1）, B. mori larvae（4280±189.1）, and P. flavescens larvae（4112.5±409.4）. The H-ORAC of all three insect species were more than twice those of most fresh vegetables, suggesting high antioxidant potential.

Paedogenesis is a unique reproductive mode shown only by some fungivorous gall midges（Diptera: Cecidomyiidae）and a coleopteran species in insects. Recently, we found various species of paedogenetic gall midges in their natural habitats, such as decayed trunks and branches on the forest floor in Japan. In this study, we established a continuous rearing technique for paedogenetic gall midges in the laboratory using Flammulina velutipes mycelia growing on potato dextrose agar（PDA）media. In addition, the effects of temperature on the paedogenetic larval development were examined for Mycophila sp. A. The generation period of one paedogenetic cycle was 5.9 days at 24°C and a mother larva produced 15–16 young larvae on average. The developmental zero and thermal constant in the paedogenetic development were estimated to be 8.3°C and 92.7 degree-days, respectively, with the traditional linear method. The laboratory rearing method established in this study is useful for studying the developmental traits of paedogenetic gall midges as well as for examining the mechanism of reproduction mode shift from a paedogenetic to holometabolic life cycle.