A new species of cosmopterigid moth, Cosmopterix javanica sp. nov. is described from Java (Indonesia). The specimens are quite different from Cosmopterix attenuatella, though they had labels identifying them as that species.
Fletcher's specimen, which is very important as the evidential specimen for the hostplant of Cosmopterix attenuatella (=C.flavofasciata) in his publication (1933), has not been located or subjected to modem examination. A specimen that is probably the same species as in his description has now been found among the material preserved in the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH). After careful examination of the external characters it is concluded that Fletcher's specimen is a different species from attenuatella.
Two new species, Cosmopterix flavidella sp. nov. and C.margaritae sp. nov., are described from Japan and neighboring countries, and the coryphaea and catharacma species-groups are newly proposed including them respectively.
Additional observations of food plants, life histories, adult behavior and parasitism in immature stages of Neope niphonica niphonica in Kanazawa City are reported.
We collected two second instar larvae of Euthalia byakko in the suburbs of Xieng Khouang Province in central Laos in January 2009 and were the first to succeed in getting these larvae to emerge by rearing. As these larvae were collected on a leaf surface of Lithocarpus (Pasania) sp. along a central vein, we bred them using a leaf of Lithocarpus (Pasania) edulis as a substitute food plant and succeeded in getting adult female and male individuals to emerge.
The larvae of Lycaeides argyrognomon (Bergstrasser) feed only on Indigofera pseudo-tinctoria (JPN-I). A Chinese-grown Indigofera sp. (CHA-I) has been used in recent times for revegetation of roadside slopes. This study was carried out to confirm that L.argyrognomon larvae given CHA-I can grow well and to compare the survival and development of L.argyrognomon reared on the two different Indigofera plants. Newly hatched larvae were divided into two groups, one given JPN-I leaves and the other given CHA-I leaves and kept in an incubator at a constant temperature of 25℃ with a photoperiod of 16L:8D. The means of the developmental periods of males were shorter than those of females reared on JPN-I and CHA-I. There were no significant differences in the survival rate, the rate of abnormal emergence or the developmental periods between the group reared on JPN-I and that reared on CHA-I. The means of the pupal weight and the forewing length in individuals reared on CHA-I were larger than those of individuals reared on JPN-I. The possibility of using CHA-I as host plants for L.argyrognomon is discussed.
The author studied how larvae of Argyreus hyperbius survived through the winter. The activity of larvae and the growth of wild violets were observed in fields and residential area in Hino City, Tokyo, and the following results were obtained. (1) The larvae of Argyreus hyperbius actively moved even in winter, and reached other violets after consuming the leaves of one violet. (2) In winter wild violets lost their leaves or had only a small amount which was insufficient for the larvae to live on and grow. However the pansy Viola wittrockiniana planted in residential areas had much larger leaves in winter, and larvae of Argyreus hyperbius utilized the plant instead of wild violets.
The purpose of this study is to develop a technique for quantifying the adult dispersal and retention patterns of two clearwing moths, Glossosphecia romanovi and Sesia yezoensis (Sesiidae). We analyzed concentrations of 20 elements in each individual body by ICP-MS and discriminated their natal sites from the data. We found that element concentrations in the bodies of clearwing moths differed for each natal site to some extent and we could discriminate their natal site by the data. In particular, in the case of G.romanovi, we could generally discriminate small plots of their natal sites and detect an individual which had immigrated from another environment. This method can be used for other insects.