Larvae of Luciola parvula were fed minced land snails (Euphaedusa tau tau and Pupinella rufa), earthworms (Oligochaeta spp.), or wood lice (Porcellio scaber) for about 80 weeks after molting to the second instar. Under all these diet conditions, molting with the growth of body size (the increase of pronotum width) was observed. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis estimated that the probability of survival was 83.6, 75.2, or 46.6% for larvae fed E. tau tau, P. rufa, or Oligochaeta spp., respectively. About a half of the larvae fed P. scaber survived for 200 days or more, whereas all died by the end of the experiment. The pronotum width of the larvae fed Oligochaeta spp. was a little smaller than those fed land snails and the final instars collected in the field. Therefore, it is likely that L. parvula larvae can use various soil animals and their carcasses at least as temporary food resources, while land snails are most suitable.

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This year is the International Year of Biodiversity, and the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP10) will be held in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, from 18 to 29 October 2010. This COP will discuss the evaluation of "the 2010 Biodiversity Target", the decision of "the post-2010 Biodiversity Target" and Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS). The big projects such as the Japanese Biodiversity Observation Network (J-BON) and East and Southeast Asia Biodiversity Information Initiative (ESABII) are started in Japan. The taxonomists are expected to contribute to such projects related to CBD. In this special feature edition, some researchers having participated in CBD-related projects introduce the summary of the projects and relevance with the taxonomists.

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This article reviews outline of agenda for biodiversity conservation by Japanese government, for example, Natural Monument by the Law for the Protection of Cultural Property, regulation of National Parks by the Natural Parks Law, National Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora by the Species Conservation Law, regulation of invasive alien species by the Alien Species Act, focusing on issues concerning insect conservation. The Red Data Book, the National Survey on the Natural Environment and the National Biodiversity Strategy are also reviewed. To promote the agenda for biodiversity conservation, entomologists should provide information on the ecology, life history, present distribution and current status of insects including endangered species through their researches.

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This article reviews web-based entomological databases and resources mainly in Japan, and discusses how taxonomists can contribute to activities related to the CDB (the Convention on Biological Diversity). Taxonomic information is one of the essential resources to evaluate the biodiversity change and to implement the CBD post-2010 vision and targets. Thus taxonomic databases should be a core component of the biodiversity data network. Though there are many available entomological databases, the lack of standardization in each system prevents data sharing and integration among these databases. To improve the current situation, the Japan national node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is building databases and a data sharing framework in Japan, in collaboration with the GEO BON, AP-BON, J-BON and ESABII that are projects associated with CBD. On the other hand, only limited amount of taxonomic data is available via the Internet. Supports of related societies and the capacity building of the biodiversity informatics are necessary to promote publishing and sharing of taxonomic data in Japan.

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Pteridophytes, or seed-free vascular plants are one of the organism groups richest in biodiversity information in Japan. Although their native taxa are much fewer than those of insects in Japan, distribution maps in 10km grid based on ca. 200000 specimens are available for almost all the native pteridophyte taxa (ca. 700 taxa). In pteridophytes, Japan Pteridological Society consisting mostly of professional researchers and Nippon Fernist Club consisting mainly of amateur botanists are keeping a cooperative relationship, and this brings significant benefits to both of them. With the help of amateur botanists who know local flora very well, researchers can obtain material for their studies from a wide area of the country within a short period of time. The amateur botanists, in turn, can obtain up-to-date knowledge about local plants from the researchers. Since the utility of biodiversity data (e.g. occurrence records) increases significantly as the data approach saturation, building human networks to support data collection is required for every organism group.

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The Hokkaido University Museum has promoted general education for taxonomy, that is, training courses for parataxonomists in Japan and Indonesia. During last six years, we conducted a total of 99 courses and the total number of participants has reached 1,271. In this paper I show (1) a chronological history of parataxonomists courses in Japan and Asia, and (2) the present situation of the courses, and also consider (3) a functional aspect of the parataxonomists courses for educating undergraduate and graduate students and citizens as candidate researchers in taxonomy, (4) effects of the courses on the public recognition of the taxonomy and biodiversity in Japan, and (5) promise of the courses.

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This article focuses on the role of taxonomists (and parataxonomists) in "Selection of functional biodiversity indicators and development of assessment methods" which is a five-year research project launched in April 2008 under the commission from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF). Firstly, we briefly report the outline of the research project to explore biodiversity indicators and their assessment methods in Japanese agro-ecosystems. Then, we review the essential roles of taxonomists in the research project, especially as identifiers of biological specimens and providers of convenient identification methods for target species.

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My website "Japanese Donaciine Beetles" (http://www.green-f.or.jp/heya/hayashi/nekuizukan/nekuizukan-top.html) received the 2005 Japan Entomological Society Akitsu Prize. The site contains a check-list of Japanese donaciine beetles, an illustrated key to species of adult stage, and explanations of each species. I think that publishing and updating of this type of website should contribute to development of insect taxonomy.

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