The bean webworm, pleuroptha ruralis, known as a serious pest of soybeans, alternately uses the nettles and soybeans as host plants. We investigated the mating status and ovarian condition of the bean webworm adults collected in nettle colonies at larval hibernating sites and soybean fields in 2006 and 2007. Overwintering generation females collected in the nettle colonies had already mated before moving to soybean fields. In contrast, almost all the females of the summer generation collected from the soybean fields were virgin, but the females which invaded the nettle colonies had mated and had mature eggs. Thus, the overwintering generation females mated in the nettle colonies where the larvae grew, but the summer generation females began mating after leaving the soybean fields where the larvae grew. These results suggested that the reproductive conditions of females before host alternation were different between the two generations.

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This article reviews my activity on the website "MothProg" (http://www.mothprog.com/), which received the 2005 Japan Entomological Society Akitsu Prize. Since launching in June 2001, the website has aimed to act as an on-line resource of moths and a place for communication on moth-related topics. The main content is "List-MJ: A checklist of Japanese moths" (http://listmj.mothprog.com), an up-to-date checklist of Japanese moths. As the de facto standard of moth names in Japan, List-MJ contributes to many studies, biodiversity projects and websites, and benefits a wide range of users from amateurs to professionals. In future, it will be necessary to provide access to resources through various means (e.g. English version, searchable database and web-services) under an open license such as Creative Commons, to facilitate use of such online resources.

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