We reported here the Palaeoloxodon naumnni fossils of FUJIMOTO Haruyoshi collection that belongs in the Saitama Museum of Natural History. There are three fossil specimens of P. naumanni in this collection. These specimens are right and left first molars and fragment of tusk. These fossils were found from haulageway of limestone in Shikkari Higashi-doori, Shimokita-gun, Aomori Prefecture. Many specimens of P. naumanni collected from this locality, and so Shikkari is the one of the most important fossil locality of P. naumanni.

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Asarum tamaense Makino is an endangered species of Saitama pref. and Japan. We investigated the distribution of A. tamaense in a fragmented forest of an urbanized area to clarify a site which contributes to their survival. We adopted two scales for evaluation of the site. One of the scales is a stand level and the other is a microsite level. In stand level, A. tamaense was distributed in afforestation area of Chamaecyparis obtusa (Siebold et Zucc.) Endl. intensively, which occupied only 7% of the total of forested area. It was the only stand, which was composed of trees having evergreen scale-leaf and had fewer understories. We considered that the intensive distribution was resulting from the lower risks of suffocation by leaf litter accumulation. In microsite level, A. tamaense was distributed in undulated area intensively. In detail, however, they were not distributed to specific microsites such as hollow or projection of the ground. We considered A. tamaense had considerably high tolerance for water shortage and it removed significance of microsite selection.

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Habitat preference of the eosentomid species was surveyed based on the data of 172 collecting sites in Kanto district, using only records from ≤ 500 m a.s.l. and dividing the region into rural and urban areas. Vegetation was divided into 6 types in rural area and into 7 types in urban area. Eosentomon sakura, Paranisentomon tuxeni, E. tokiokai and E. asakawaense were collected from almost same vegetation types in rural and urban areas. Although E. asahi inhabited all vegetation types of rural area, they were rare in urban area. Japanese proturans comprise two major stocks, southern and northern ones, and E. sakura, P. tuxeni and E. tokiokai are representatives of the southern stock and E. asahi is one of the northern stock. These results suggest that the southern stock has the tolerance of environmental disturbance and the northern stock does not.

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In March 2011, the establishment of the invasive alien Pallas’s squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus) has been ascertained at the golf course in the southwestern Iruma City. These squirrels originated from pets reared in the campus neighboring to the golf course in 1990s. Sound playback and census surveys revealed that the squirrels were also distributed in five woodlots around the golf course. We started control of the squirrels at the golf course and surrounding woodlots from December 2011, and 64 individuals (50 at the golf course and 14 at the surrounding woodlots) had been captured until November 2013. At the end of the period, the density of squirrel drastically decreased as that most of all individuals had been removed. However, we need further monitoring such as playback and camera trapping surveys to eradicate the alien squirrel completely in this area.

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According to our present survey, 1 species of flea and 6 species of parasitic mites were recorded from 13 Japanese dormouse Glirulus japonicus (Schinz, 1845) and 16 nests of them. The flea turned out to be monopsyllus yamane. Among parasitic mites, 4 species of them were Steatonyssus nakazimai, Haemogamasus quadrisetatus, Androlaelaps casalis, and Hypoaspis pavlovskii, which belonged to Mesostigmata, while 2 species were Dermacarus hypudaei japonicus and Afrolistrophorus apodemi, which belonged to Astigmata. These species had been recorded from various small mammals. Therefore, it was suggested that ectoparasites’ exchange had taken place between dormouses and various small mammals. Our survey results and previous reports of ectoparasites on G. japonicus by many researchers shows that five flea species and 18 mite species were estimated as the ectoparasitic fauna of G. japonicus.

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Fork-tailed petrel have been recognised as accidental visitor for Saitama Prefecture by The Committee for Check-List of Japanese Birds of the Ornithological Society of Japan. This record considered to be based on the "A Catalogue of the Materials in the Saitama Museum of Natural History", and I can't find any other record of this species in Saitama Prefecture. However, this specimen considered to be misidentification, therefore I tried to re-evaluation using morphological characters of the specimen. This specimen identified as Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca because following three reasons: 1) front head and cheek are white with black fringes, therefore it appears to be mottled, 2) contrast between head, upper side of wing, and back are weak, 3) lesser and middle coverts are black and black area of axillaries are wide. Therefore, I propose removal of the record of Fork-tailed Petrel in Saitama Prefecture.

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