Ephoron of polymitarcyid mayflies in East Asia includes three species, E. shigae, E. limnobium, and E. eophilum, but the former two species are not separated on their molecular phylogenetic trees. All-female automictic parthenogenetic reproduction is known only in Japanese E. shigae in which bisexual and unisexual populations are distributed across Japan without any clear biogeographic boundaries. Population genetic structure studies show the parthenogenetic origin occurred only once in western Japan and then expanded all over Japan. In some rivers, both reproductive types coexist, and parthenogenetic females occupied the population within 20 years after unisexual introduction. Ephoron shigae has univoltine life cycles, and adults emerge synchronously in early autumn in bisexual or unisexual populations. It is a future problem for this ecologically interesting mayfly to inhabit the same rivers with both reproductive types.

Toyama, one of the prefectures of the Hokuriku District of Honshu, Japan, has many types of natural vegetation, which ranges from hill forest to subalpine forest. Carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) were collected from July to September, 2009, with Townes white Malaise traps in the mountainous areas (330, 664, and 1,120 m a.s.l.) of Toyama Prefecture. The main type of vegetation at these survey sites is deciduous broadleaf forests dominated by Juglans spp. and Fagus crenata. In total 76 individuals from 27 different species, and five subfamilies were collected. Colpodes japonicus was the dominant species (21.1％), followed by Dromius prolixus (18.4％) and Harpalus eous (7.9％). The subfamilies Pterostichinae (especially the tribe Platynini), Harpalinae and Lebiinae were trapped most frequently both in terms of abundance and species richness. The abundance and the species richness of the subfamilies Pterostichinae and Lebiinae increased with altitude. Although the harpaline species richness was high at the survey sites 330 m and 664 m a.s.l., Harpalinae was not collected at the survey site 1,120 m a.s.l.

A cave cricket, Diestrammena (Tachycines) coreana (Yamasaki, 1969), which is native to eastern Eurasia, was discovered in Otaru City, Hokkaido, Japan. We observed that many individuals spread extensively in the urbanized harbor area of Otaru. This species was known to be naturally distributed in South Korea and China. Introduction of this species to Vladivostok, Russia was reported. A previous paper mentioned that this species was distributed in Japan, but there has no reliable record in Japan so far. That is, the present paper is the first report for D. coreana as alien species in Japan. We think that the most likely entry route of this species is sea route, because there is a regular ship line between Otaru and Vladivostok, and cargo ships from South Korea frequently enter Otaru port.