A new sand fly species, Sergentomyia iriomotensis sp. nov. is described from Iriomote Island, Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. The specimens found were only males and detailed descriptions and illustrations, including genitalia (coxite, style, aedeagus, surstyle, paramera and genital pump), head (pharynx, cibarium, antennal segments) and wing are presented in the present paper.

Aedes albopictus and Ae. flavopictus differ in habitat use and seasonality; the former inhabits residential areas and is more frequent in summer, whereas the latter does forest areas and is more abundant in cooler seasons (early summer and autumn). To understand factors underlying their differential habitat use and seasonality, we examined whether Ae. flavopictus females survive longer and are more likely to cease reproduction than Ae. albopictus females under unfavorable conditions. We reared these two species at 25 and 28°C under high and low diet and examined wing length, longevity and a number of reproductive parameters. In both species, females with larger wings survived longer. In interspecific comparison, Ae. flavopictus survived longer than Ae. albopictus when raised at 25°C under high diet but Ae. albopictus survived longer when raised at 28°C under low diet. There was no difference in longevity between them when raised at 25°C under low diet and 28°C under high diet. In addition, the proportion of mature eggs to follicle cells was high in Ae. albopictus females raised at 28°C under high diet. These results suggest that Ae. albopictus is more adapted to 28°C while Ae. flavopictus to 25°C. This agrees with their seasonality that the former is more frequent in hot seasons whereas the latter in cooler seasons. In addition, this difference in their temperature adaptations would explain the difference in their habitat use.

Twenty Japanese mattresses with various periods of use were collected from 11 localities in Japan in 2014. Samples of the mattresses including the padding were removed at 5 collection points in each mattress. The samples were divided into 3 layers (upper, middle, and bottom layers), and the fauna and density of house-dust mites were examined. A total of 12,734 mites of 10 families were collected and 97.0% of them belonged to Pyroglyphidae. The total number of mites was estimated as 4,640 to 394,240 per mattress. A positive correlation was found between the number of dead and alive mites and the number of exuviae. The dominant species in Pyroglyphidae was Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Trouessart) and D. farinae Hughes, and the proportion of D. pteronyssinus ranged from 0 to 100% among the samples. Multiple samples collected within the same locality (Tokyo, Kanagawa) showed a wide variation in the proportion of D. pteronyssinus. The distribution of mites in the 3 layers differed among the 5 sampling points. More mites were distributed in the middle layers at sampling points located at the edge of the mattresses. The proportion of Pyroglyphid mites distributed in the upper and bottom layers ranged from 15.6 to 94.3%.

Eleven species and three genera of tabanid flies were collected through surveys conducted at the Noto Peninsula, Honshu, Japan. Of these, Silvius dorsalis, Tabanus coquilletti, and T. fulvimedioides were collected as newly recorded species from the peninsula. Combined with previous records, a total of 16 species belonging to four genera of tabanid flies are recorded as the tabanid fauna of the Noto Peninsula.