This is the third report of surveys on early stages of butterflies in the Nanling area. We observed about 35 more species, including larvae of Agehana elwesi, Lethe satyrina, Lethe trimacula, Sasakia charonda, Neptis manasa, ova of Chrysozephyrus rarasanus, Tongeia potanini.

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Fourteen new species of Eupithecia (Lepidoptera, Geometridae), Eupithecia lilliputata sp.n., E. boneta sp.n., E. missionerata sp.n., E. wangi sp.n., E. admiranda sp.n., E. hongxiangae sp.n., E. hoenehermanni sp.n., E. buysseata sp.n., E. amandae sp.n., E. manifesta sp.n., E. tamara sp.n., E. qinlingata sp.n., E. svetlanae sp.n. and E. tectaria sp.n., are described from China.

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A new subspecies of Tajuria matsutaroi is described from the Leyte Is., the Philippines.

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The swallowtail butterfly Luehdorfia chinensis (Leech, 1893) is endangered in China. Although its biological characteristics and habitat were reported more than twenty years ago, its conservation biology remained insufficiently known. In 2009, we discovered a population of the butterfly in Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve, Hunan, and preliminary data on the biology of this population was accumulated from March 2009 to July 2010, based on laboratory rearing and surveys in the field. Its life history was similar to those of the Zhejiang and Suzhou populations, and its habitat was on a slope around the mountaintop with its main host plant Asarum sieboldii. In Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve, human activities, such as cultivating and mowing are permitted to local residents to support the relationship between people and nature. Ruderal environments with sunlight and open spaces produced by moderate burning and mowing in the habitat may play important roles in maintenance of the population. Because suitable habitat of L. chinensis requires a comparatively open environment, logging high trees in the lowland may be necessary to sustain the Hunan population.

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We conducted route census surveys on butterfly communities in the habitats of an endangered butterfly, Shijimiaeoides divines asonis (Matsumura, 1929), under different grazing intensities on the volcanic slopes of Mt. Aso, central Kyushu, Japan, in 2005, 2006 and 2008. At the study sites, the semi-natural grassland underwent routine burning every spring. The results obtained are summarized as follows: (1) Sixty-four species assigned to five families were recorded during three observation years. (2) Ten "rare species" nominated in the "red list" by Kumamoto Prefecture and/or Ministry of Environment were recorded. (3) Grassland species, S. divinus asonis and Colias erate poliographys Motschulsky, 1860, and forest species. Celastrina argiolus labonides (de l'Orza, 1869), Ypthima argus Butler, 1866 and, Eurema mandarina (de l'Orza, 1869) were abundant. (4) More species were found at the non-grazing site (site NG) than at the customary grazing site (site CG), and more forest species were found at the site NG than at the site CG. (5) Shanon-Wiener function (H') of the butterfly community at the site NG and that at the site CG were nearly the same but Shimpson's index of diversity (1-λ) was higher at the site NG than at the site CG. (6) S. divinus asonis was the most abundant species at the site CG. On the other hand, in the habitats under low grazing intensity, the species of Lycaenidae changed from S. divinus asonis (grassland species) to C. argiolus labonides (forest species). (7) Shanon-Wiener function (H') was nearly the same among the four study sites under different grazing intensity (site NG, site LG, site CG and site HG (under high grazing intensity), but Shimpson's index of diversity (1-λ) decreased as the grazing intensity increased. (8) Grazing intensity did not affect the number of rare grassland species. The number of rare forest species at NG was the highest among the four study sites. (9) The ratio of S. divinus asonis to all butterflies was about 90% from late April to mid-May in the sites NG, LG, and CG. In conclusion, mixture of grasslands under various grazing intensities may be of benefit for the maintenance of diversity of butterfly fauna. In particular, grasslands maintained without grazing should be important to conserve the butterfly fauna of Aso grasslands. We also paid particular attention to the relationship between abundance of S. divines asonis and that of C. argiolus labonides, because their larvae feed on flowers of the same host plant, Sophora flavescens Ait., and hence they could be in competition with each other.

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As the younger larva of the tea leafroller Caloptilia theivora (Walsingham) (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) mines only into a young tea leaf, such a tea leaf must be kept fresh for at least 10 days in order to permit rearing in 25℃ laboratory condition. We tested two alternative treatments for keeping a young tea leaf fresh by rearing larvae on treated leaves; first, removing the basal half of the leaf, and second by providing some sucrose solution for leaf absorption. A combination of the treatments kept young leaves fresh for more than 15 days, and over 80% of larvae pupated successfully. Emerging adults laid 90-132 eggs per female. In this way, the tea leafroller can be mass-reared in the laboratory by providing treated fresh young tea leaves, without the use of potted tea plants.

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