Tag - animal-tracker

 
Menu
Search
 
May 15, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

ANIMAL TRACKER

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 8, 2002
Badger
Japanese name: Nihon-anaguma Scientific name: Meles meles anakuma * Description: Badgers are stout, bearlike animals. Body length of males is 56-68 cm, females 52-59 cm. They have short limbs and tails, but the characteristic feature of badgers are the black stripes on the face. These usually run from nose to ear, across the eye area, but can sometimes be shorter, as in the photo. * Where to find them: From Honshu to Kyushu, in woods and forests. Badgers live in social groups of about six adults, though larger groups are sometimes found. They are active at night. During the day, they live in underground catacombs of tunnels, chambers and toilets called setts -- a habit reflected in their Japanese and scientific name, which means "hole bear." The burrows are inherited from the badgers' parents, so can be centuries old. Each generation maintains, expands and improves the sett. One sett excavated in England was found to have 879 meters of tunnels and 178 entrances. Researchers estimated that its construction required the removal of 70 tons of soil. * Food: Badgers eat a wide variety of foodstuffs, including insects and other invertebrates like earthworms; small mammals, reptiles, amphibians such as frogs; fruit and other plant matter; carrion. * Special features: Badgers live in clans containing a dominant male and female and subordinates. If a subordinate female gets pregnant, the dominant female usually kills the cubs when they are born. Territories are scent-marked and males will aggressively defend their territories against intruding badgers. Badgers mate from late winter to mid-summer. Gestation take seven weeks, but if a female becomes pregnant at the wrong time of the year, development of the early embryo may be delayed by up to 10 months until environmental conditions such as day length and temperature are suitable for raising cubs. One to four cubs are born in February and March, and usually leave home to live independently at 7 or 8 months. But some badgers, especially females, never leave their parents.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 1, 2002
Marsh crab
* Japanese name: Sawagani * Scientific name: Geothelphusa dehaani * Description: Crabs are decapods, which means "10 legs." Marsh crabs are usually red-and-cream colored, but may be found in other colors -- perhaps caused by mutations -- in different parts of the country. Crabs have exoskeletons like insects, but even tougher ones. Their front two legs are equipped with strong pincers, used for eating and fighting. Marsh crabs are quite small, with shells 2 cm wide. * Where to find them: The marsh crab is a freshwater crab, so it can be found in most parts of Japan, from Hokkaido to Kyushu, wherever there is a river, stream or marsh. They can also be found in urban areas, sometimes hiding in the cracks in stone walls. When it rains, they can be seen strolling about on rocks and walls. * Food: Marsh crabs are omnivores, eating both plants and animals. They are important members of the detritus food chain. Detritus is the name given to the broken pieces of dead plants and animals that fall to the bottom of rivers. If this debris was left uneaten, it would pile up. When the crabs die, they are often eaten by river snails. Black bears also like to eat them. * Special features: Most crabs lay hundreds of tiny eggs into the water, but female marsh crabs retain their eggs within their body. Their eggs are 3-4 mm in diameter, much larger than in most other crabs of the same size. The young develop through all the larval stages inside the egg, safe inside the abdomen of the female. Tiny, fully formed crabs then hatch directly from inside the female and are released into the water.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 22, 2002
Silver water beetle
* Japanese name: Gamushi * Scientific name: Hydrophilus acuminatus * Description: Adapted for aquatic life, water beetles have streamlined bodies and heads. Despite this, they are not powerful swimmers, having normal legs that are not flattened like oars for swimming. Most of their lives are spent crawling on aquatic plants. They are dark green to brown (or even black) in color, but the body is covered with fine hairs that trap a thin layer of air, giving them a silvery appearance underwater. * Where to find them: Lakes and ponds from Hokkaido to Kyushu. Water beetles are one of the few insects that are active year round. * Food: Adults are mainly vegetarian, feeding on aquatic plants, except when breeding, when they will eat other aquatic animals such as small fish and tadpoles. Larvae are carnivorous. * Special features: The Japanese name (ga) refers to a tooth or spine on the underside of the adult's body. This can inflict a nasty wound on a predator attempting to eat the beetle -- or on the finger of a human attempting to catch it. The larvae, too, have special defense systems. They often play dead if a predator is nearby, and if they are surprised they release a black pigment into the water. Under the cover of this "smoke screen," they can make their escape -- or launch a counterattack. Adult beetles carry a bubble of air under their elytra (wing case), like a scuba tank. Most water beetles come up to the water surface tail-first, but silver water beetles raise their heads first, breaking through the tough surface layer with specially adapted hairy antennae. The water-repellent antennae hairs trap air, channeling it down from the surface into the scuba tank to replenish the beetle's reservoir. When females lay eggs, they first make protective cases from the leaves of aquatic plants floating on the water surface. The eggs are laid into the cases, where they are safe from harm.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 15, 2002
Greater horseshoe bat
* Japanese name: Kikugashira-koumori * Scientific name: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum * Description: Quite a large bat, the greater horseshoe bat is a buff-brown color, body length 60-80 cm, wing length 60-65 cm. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the complex and grotesque horseshoe-shaped nose that gives the bat its name (the Japanese name means "chrysanthemum bat"). This elaborate rosette of skin is an essential part of the bat's echolocation system. The bat emits high-pitched squeaks through its "noseleaf" and picks up the echoes with its huge, sensitive ears. * Where to find them: From Hokkaido to Kyushu. In winter, the bats hibernate in roosts in caves, mines, cellars and tunnels, and sometimes in the roofs of old buildings. Bats wake up regularly during the winter, and if the weather is mild they will pop out for a quick feed. In summer, the bats roost mainly in buildings. They are most active just after sunset, when they leave the roosts to hunt for an hour; they hunt again just before dawn. In late summer, they stay out all night. * Food: Insects. Favorite food items include cockchafer beetles, dung beetles, large moths and caddis flies. Horseshoe bats fly low to hunt, and most insects are taken in flight -- though sometimes a brave bat will take a beetle directly from its dung ball. * Special features: Greater horseshoe bats are polygynous, which means that male bats mate with many females. But whereas in most polygynous species, the male is bigger than the female, in horseshoe bats the male is the smaller sex. Females live together in roosts, but males are solitary. In autumn, females visit male territorial sites and mate with them. Male territories comprise of small caves or discrete parts of underground systems. After mating, the sperm is stored inside the females through winter, and fertilization takes place in the spring. Bats have to fly while pregnant, so they only ever have one pup at a time. The female gives birth hanging from her feet; the baby bat is born into her folded wings, which overlap to form a leathery cradle. The pup is suckled for the first five weeks of its life, when it starts to fly and catch insects.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 8, 2002
Japanese hare
* Japanese name: Nihon-nousagi * Scientific name: Lepus brachyurus * Description: Hares are like rabbits, only bigger and faster, with longer legs and ears. In winter, their fur is thick and white (with black tips to the ears), but as the weather gets warmer, hares molt and grow a lightweight brown coat, more more suitable for the summer. Body length is 45-54 cm. There are four subspecies living in different parts of Japan. * Where to find them: Forests, woods, fields and farms. * Food: Grass, leaves and young shoots. Hares are herbivores, with broad molars for chewing, a long intestine and a single stomach. Unlike cows, they can't hang around slowly digesting food because they might get eaten themselves. So they chew their food once and process it quickly (cows regurgitate their food and chew it again). Despite having microorganisms in their stomach to help digest the tough cellulose of plant material, the food doesn't stay around for long. To solve the problem, hares reingest their feces. They produce two types: soft green or black mucus-covered pellets, containing vitamins, minerals and fiber, which are eaten directly from the anus; and hard brown or tan pellets, which are fully digested. If hares are prevented from eating their feces, they suffer a 15-25 percent reduction in growth. * Special features: Like rabbits, hares can breed quickly. Hares are strong runners, so they don't need to live in burrows. They give birth to one or two leverets (baby hares) in "forms" -- shallow depressions in grass. The leverets are precocious, which means that, unlike rabbits, the babies are born with fur, with their eyes open and with the ability to run.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 1, 2002
Japanese squirrel
* Japanese name: Nihon risu * Scientific name: Sciurus lis * Description: The Japanese squirrel is an arboreal species, which means it lives in trees. It has a long, bushy tail, large tufted ears and sharp claws. Its fur changes color according to the season. In summer, the fur is red-orange. In winter, because these squirrels do not hibernate, the fur becomes camouflaged, turning gray or light-brown and white under the chin and on the belly. Body length is 18-22 cm. * Where to find them: Quiet woodlands, from Honshu to Kyushu, and nowhere else -- the species is only found in Japan. This squirrel is most active in the early morning, and during the day they often take a quick nap in a tree. They build several ball-shaped nests in trees and switch between them. One reason for moving house might be to avoid parasites like fleas and ticks that build up in their bedding material. They have three to six offspring. * Food: Nuts, seeds and young leaves. Squirrels' incisors (cutting teeth) continually grow to compensate for the wear that comes from their herbivorous diet. * Special features: Japanese squirrels are well-adapted to life in trees. When they leap between trees, they use their tail to steer, and when they land, the tail slows them down, like a parachute. At rest the tail lays along the squirrel's back. They can rotate their hind feet 180 degrees to help them climb down trees. Many biologists studying cognition (memory and spatial perception) are interested in squirrels because of their food-hoarding behavior. Squirrels have to prepare for the annual winter food shortage, so they store nuts and seeds in caches to retrieve later. However, the forest undergoes changes as winter comes on, and the hungry squirrel must be able to remember the location of its hidden food. Some food caches are never found -- an important factor aiding the dispersal of seeds. Other caches are found -- but by a different squirrel. Squirrels have no qualms about stealing the food of others.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 25, 2002
Serow
* Japanese name: Nihon kamoshika * Scientific name: Capricornis crispis * Description: Serows look like a cross between a goat and an antelope, with horizontal pupils and sharp, dagger-like horns. The ears are mule-like, narrow and tasseled, and are longer than the horns. Serows are the most primitive members of an ancient goat/antelope group of animals called the Carprinae. Serow-like fossils appear in rocks from 35 million years ago. Adults grow up to 70-85 cm at the shoulder and weigh 25-80 kg. Coat color varies -- the fur may be brown, gray, black or white. * Where to find them: Serows are the official animals of Fukui Prefecture, but they can be found on steep, wooded hillsides from Honshu to Kyushu. * Food: Serows use their lips and tongues to gather and process food -- leaves, grass, bark and bamboo. Like all bovids (a group comprising oxen, sheep, goat and antelopes), serows are specialized browsers called ruminants. They grind vegetation with their large, flat teeth. * Special features: Mating takes place in autumn or winter, and a single kid is born sometime between May and September. Kids don't have horns (see photo); serows grow them when they become sexually mature at 3 years. At the base of the horns are the preorbital glands, which produce smelly secretions that both sexes use to mark territorial boundaries on rocks and trees. A solitary territory may be as small as 1.2 hectares; that of a family group up to 22 hectares. Serows are resource defenders, patrolling areas containing food plants. They are less agile than goats, but are surefooted on the mountainside and well-adapted to the humid climate. Both males and females are bearded and have acute hearing, vision and smell.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 18, 2002
Great diving beetle
* Japanese name: Gengorou * Scientific name: Cybister japonicus * Description: This is a large, streamlined water beetle, highly adapted to an aquatic life. It is a powerful swimmer, with hind legs flattened like oars and fringed with long hairs. The body is green or black, with yellow-white bands running down the sides from the head. 35-40 mm long. * Where to find them: In rivers, streams, lakes and ponds from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Adults can be found from April to October. Females make small holes in aquatic plants with their jaws and insert eggs into the plant, where they will be safe from harm. * Food: Voracious predators, diving beetles will devour the larvae of other insects as well as small fish, shrimp, newts, tadpoles and frogs. The beetle larvae are equally aggressive, stabbing prey with specially adapted mouthparts. There is a narrow canal inside the mandibles, through which the larva injects digestive juices into the prey, which it then sucks dry. Diving beetles sometimes overeat and become too heavy to swim. In this case, they quickly excrete some food. If that still doesn't work, they vomit what they've just eaten. * Special features: Like many insects in Japan, diving beetles used to be eaten, apparently for perceived medicinal benefits. These days, however, pollution from agricultural chemicals that seep into rivers means that the diving beetle is off the menu. Many species of diving beetle have immensely long sperm (longer than the beetle's body length), stored inside the body in coils like spaghetti. The reason for this extravagant length is unknown -- the female might digest the sperm and use the energy to make more eggs, or the male might be protecting his paternity (long sperm are probably hard to dislodge once they are inside the female). Either way, the information is unlikely to whet human appetite for the beetle.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 11, 2002
Northern fur seal
* Japanese name: Kita-ottosei * Scientific name: Callorhinus ursinus * Description: Fur seals have bodies streamlined for life in the sea. They have four limbs (unlike dolphins and whales, which have only two), but the arm and leg bones are relatively short and are contained within the body. The hand and foot bones are elongated and webbed for improved swimming power, and the hind flippers can rotate, enabling the seals to run or climb on land. The penis and the testes are internal, and the nipples can be retracted to reduce drag. Adult males grow up to 2.1 meters long, and females 1.4 meters. Pups (see photo) are 60 cm long when they are born. Fur seals look black when they are wet, but males may be brownish-gray or reddish-brown, and females silvery-gray with a white patch on their chest. * Where to find them: In the north Pacific, from the Bering Sea in the east, to Honshu and Hokkaido in the west. Males secure territories on the shore before the females arrive to give birth. Within 48 hours of giving birth, the females mate again. * Food: Fish and squid. Fur seals hunt at night. Their whiskers are extremely sensitive to vibrations and are used to track prey. Their predators include foxes, sharks and killer whales. * Special features: The fur of northern fur seals is incredibly thick, forming a dense waterproof coat containing over 60,000 hairs per square centimeter. This insulation allows them to live and hunt in cold and deep-water environments. Their nostrils shut automatically on diving, and their blood contains 3 1/2 times the hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying molecule in red blood cells) of human blood. Fur seals often have to sleep in the open sea. Sleep is unihemispheric, which means that each half, or hemisphere, of the brain sleeps alternately. Hunting, for fur and for their perceived medicinal properties, has lead to the seal being classified as "vulnerable" in Japan. Tokugawa Ieyesu reputedly ate fur-seal extracts for vigor. Male fur seals are particularly vigorous. They form harems of 20-30 (sometimes up to 100) females, and copulate with the females for a month without eating, losing about 25 percent of their body weight.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 4, 2002
Horsefly
* Japanese name: Akaushiabu * Scientific name: Tabanus chrysurus * Decription: This is a stout-bodied insect with huge, iridescent compound eyes (the eyes touch in the center in males but are separated in females). They have one pair of wings and are strong fliers, able to cover long distances. The thorax and abdomen are yellow and black. Horseflies are 25-30 mm long. * Where to find them: Mainly in suburban and rural areas, from Hokkaido to Kyushu, where they are pests of mammals, especially horses, but also humans. Adults emerge in June and mate soon afterward. Sex is initiated in the air and completed on the ground. Adults live for three-four weeks, during which females lay batches of 100-1,000 eggs covered in a jellylike material, on rocks near water or on leaves overhanging water. When the eggs hatch, the fat, white maggots fall into the water or moist soil. * Food: Both males and females eat nectar, but females need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. The larvae eat other insect larvae, snails and earthworms. Adults locate their prey chemically (homing in especially on carbon dioxide) and when closer, visually. * Special features: Horseflies, as anyone who has been bitten by one will know, have formidable mouthparts. Shaped like a miniature pair of steak knives, the mouthparts are made of two slender mandibles. Rather than sucking blood like a mosquito, horseflies repeatedly slash the skin, forming a deep wound in which blood collects. The fly then laps up the pool of blood with a tonguelike mouthpart. Sometimes, minor secondary bacterial infections may occur after humans are bitten by a horsefly, but these are never serious. On the other hand, horseflies can transmit diseases, including anthrax, to domestic animals.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 28, 2001
Native Horse
* Japanese name: Nihon zairaiba * Scientific name: Equus caballus * Description: Hoofed animal that bears its weight on its central third toe. Its family, called the perissodactyls, also includes tapirs and rhinos. The first horse ancestor was doggish and dog-sized, with four toes on the front foot. The only descendents surviving today are the zebras, asses and donkeys of Africa, and true horses. Japanese native horses are small -- at under 147 cm at the shoulder, they are technically ponies. Their heads are relatively large, the neck held horizontal, the mane thick and flowing. They are typically bay-, brown- or chestnut-colored. * Where to find them: On New Year's cards this January, since 2002 is the Chinese Year of the Horse. Also in fields all over Japan, but native breeds are becoming rare. Horses probably first came to Japan in the Kamakura Period (1184-1333), when warriors from Korea and China brought cavalry, but they might have arrived even earlier, from Mongolia. Originally belonging only to the aristocracy, horses became more widespread and acquired domestic roles between the fourth and sixth centuries. Native breeds such as the Kaudachi horse of Aomori, the Yanaguni horse and the Yururi Island horse of Nemuro, Hokkaido, survive in isolated pockets of Japan. Holy horses are sometimes kept at Shinto shrines. * Food: Hay, grass and (if they're lucky) oats. Apples and sugar lumps go down well, too. * Special features: Extremely high endurance, an ability to survive on poor food and in severe weather. Japanese native horses also have tough hooves. They are symbolic of speed and perseverance -- the word "horse" derives from the Anglo-Saxon word hors (swiftness). The Bodhisattva Kannon (an enlightened being) has six forms for each plane of existence: On the animal plane, Kannon has a horse's head. The name Kannon originally meant "the one who listens," and stood for mercy, comfort, protection and longevity.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 21, 2001
Ant spider
* Japanese name: Ari-gumo * Scientific name: Myrmarachne japonica * Description: This spider looks like an ant, but it is an arachnid, not an insect. You can tell because it has eight legs. The ant spider mimics ants, and sometimes flutters its forelegs like the antennae of ants, because it has no antennae of its own. The distinguishing feature of the ant spider, however, are its huge front eyes. Ant spiders have eight eyes, but the front two are like car headlights. They can see 360 degrees, without any head movement. They also have a powerful pair of jaws, which they use to inject venom into prey, to kill or stun it before sucking it dry. Males are about 7 mm in length, females 8 mm. * Where to find them: In woods and meadows, on foliage, in spring and summer. Also in houses, all year round. Ant spiders are active during the day. * Food: Insects. If you have ant spiders in your house, you should be happy, because they will attack pests such as flies and moths. They are not dangerous to humans. * Special features: Ant spider vision is far superior to that of normal spiders, who sit in webs all day. The ant spider belongs to a group of spiders called jumping spiders. Unlike other types of spiders, jumping spiders don't spin a web to catch prey; they actively hunt it. Some species can jump 40 times their body length. Before leaping, the spider fixes a silk safety line, so that if it misses its landing spot, it can hang, like on a bungee cord. The scientific name for the family is Salticidae, from the Latin salto, to dance. This refers to the elaborate courtship dance that the male performs before copulation. Females decide whether to mate with a male on the basis of his dancing ability: Some males are better than others. Males will jump quickly away from a female if she approaches too quickly, no doubt because females are known to kill and eat males.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 14, 2001
Moon bear
* Japanese name: Nihon Tsukinowa-guma * Scientific name: Ursus thibetanus japonicus * Description: This is the largest animal in Japan, apart from the Hokkaido brown bear, 110-130 cm tall when standing upright. Also called the Asiatic bear or Japanese black bear, the moon bear gets its Japanese name from the crescent of white fur around its neck. The rest of its fur is black. When walking, moon bears (like all bears) place their weight on their entire foot, like humans, rather than just on the toes, like cats and dogs. They also sit and stand like humans. They have short, stubby tails. * Where to find them: Moon bears live in and around broadleaf forests in the mountains of Honshu and Shikoku. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 of them, though they are endangered in some areas. As their habitat is destroyed, bears are seen more often around human settlements, sometimes causing damage to farmers' crops and occasionally (often when a female with cubs is startled) attacking humans. * Food: Nuts and fruit. Also bamboo shoots, wild grapes, raspberries, honey and acorns. Moon bears can easily climb tall trees and can sometimes be seen high up a tree eating fruit. * Special features: Moon bears have a short but intense breeding season in June and July. Females are induced ovulators, which means that they must be stimulated in order to release an egg. To this end, the male's penis contains a bony structure called the baculum, which apparently stimulates the female during copulation. It also widens inside the female, locking the copulating bears together for up to 30 minutes. One or two cubs are born in January. Because bears hibernate in winter, the gestating cubs don't get as much food as other mammals, so they are very small when they are born. To make up for this, the female's milk is very rich in nutrients and fat.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 7, 2001
Black mountain ant
* Japanese name:Kuroyama-ari * Scientific name:Formica japonica * Description: Like all ants, the black mountain ant has three clearly defined body parts: a capsulelike head with strong jaws; a thorax to which the three pairs of legs are joined; and an abdomen. There are also three different types, or castes, of ants: workers, soldiers and sexuals (those that reproduce). Workers and soldiers are all female, and all ants in a colony are sisters. They are 4-6 mm long. Male sexuals are slightly bigger than soldiers, and queens -- the female sexuals -- are 10 mm long. Ants in the sexual caste have wings to search for mates. After mating, the male dies and the female loses her wings and forms a colony. * Where to find them: All over Japan, from March to November, in dry, sunny places near houses. The ants build complex nests in the earth that extend underground at depths of up to 2 meters. Small scavenger beetles sometimes live with these ants and are tolerated for their cleaning skills. * Food: Nectar from flowers and fallen fruit. Black mountain ants are especially fond of the honeydew excreted by aphids; they stroke the abdomens of aphids to "milk" the honeydew. * Special features: Ant nests form one of the most complex animal societies. The microclimate of the nest is carefully controlled by workers who open and close ventilation shafts according to the temperature. Other workers are in charge of feeding the larvae, while still others are on hygiene detail, removing feces and dead ants from the nest. Soldiers guard the nest from predators. Ants are symbols of strength for good reason -- an ant weighing 0.004 grams can carry an object five times its own weight and drag objects 25 times heavier than itself. That's like a 45-kg person giving 225-kg Musashimaru a piggyback.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 30, 2001
Tiger mosquito
* Japanese name: Hitosujishimaka * Scientific name: Aedes albopictus * Description: A small, soft-bodied insect, the tiger mosquito is instantly recognizable by the black-and-white bands on its legs, and the distinctive white "racing stripe" on its black thorax. The antennae are tufted and are shorter than the body, which is 4-5 mm long. Mosquitoes, as we all know well, have mouthparts that are specially adapted for piercing skin. * Where to find them: From Honshu to Kyushu, from May to November, tiger mosquitoes are found in gardens and woods, where they are active during the day. They are opportunistic breeders, laying eggs wherever water will gather. Larvae need only 6 mm of water to complete their development. Females glue their eggs to the sides of a tree hole, or in a small cavity such as an aluminum drink can or a car tire, above the water level. The eggs remain dormant until it rains, when they hatch. Larval development can be completed within 10 days. * Food: Blood. Tiger mosquitoes feed on humans (preferring the lower legs), birds, and domesticated and wild animals. One blood meal enables a female to lay 300 eggs. * Special features: Tiger mosquitoes are aggressive biters and agile fliers. They usually fly in, bite quickly and fly out before you can react. They can transmit several serious diseases, such as Dengue fever and West Nile virus, but not malaria. They may bite several times before they are sated with blood. Tiger mosquitoes are endemic to Asia, but have recently spread to North America. They do not fly for long distances -- their invasion of North America started with a shipment of tires from Asia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 23, 2001
Forest cockroach
* Japanese name: Morichabane gokiburi * Scientific name: Blattella nipponica * Description: These sleek insects are 11-14 mm long, with two pairs of wings. Adults are brown, although when they change from a nymph into an adult, the body is white, as in the photo. During the transformation, the wings are pumped full of blood and the shell hardens and turns brown after about four hours. The forewings harden as well and overlap in the middle of the body, protecting the membranous hindwings underneath. Forest cockroaches are good fliers. They have long, whiplike antennae, biting mouthparts and two sensory prongs called cerci at the end of the abdomen. * Where to find them: Tokyo is the northern limit of this species, which lives in forests and gardens. Unlike their more familiar relatives, forest cockroaches don't come into houses. They can be found in dark places -- in leaf litter and under stones. They are active at night. * Food: Anything. Forest cockroaches, like the ones in your house, eat anything. They are the recyclers of the forest and their guts are likely to contain all the diseases and bacteria of the forest. Like all insects, cockroaches groom themselves regularly in order to maintain fully functional sensory systems. They are clean on the outside but have a distinctive cockroach smell, that of their own salivary gland secretions -- and the consumed feces of other animals. * Special features: Cockroaches are among the most successful animals in the history of life and live in almost every terrestrial environment. Females carry their fertilized eggs until just before they hatch, so boosting the number of young that survive. They breathe through holes in the side of the body called spiracles, so they can survive for a short time even if they lose their heads.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 16, 2001
Stink bug
* Japanese name: Kusagikamemushi * Scientific name: Halyomorpha halys * Description: Most people call all insects "bugs," but strictly speaking, only one order of insect, those with piercing mouthparts, are true bugs -- the stink bug is one of them. It belongs to a family called shieldbugs, because the body is triangular and shield-shaped. It has two pairs of wings, the forewings being slightly hardened for protection, like a beetle's, and the hindwings being used for flight. The wings are folded flat over the body, which is a brown-black color with speckles of red and gold. * Where to find them: On plains and in lower mountain areas, and in parks and gardens, from Honshu to Kyushu. They emerge in spring, mate and lay eggs on the leaves of fruit trees. (In Japanese, the name means "stinky tree bug.") By May the larvae are feeding, and in midsummer they molt into the adult stage. November is the peak season for flying -- the bugs fly to look for overwintering sites and can be found in large numbers on buildings and temples. * Food: Fruits and vegetables. Stink bugs are major pests of soybeans, pears and apples. They insert their needlelike mouths into the fruit and suck juices from it. This leaves marks on the fruit that make it unfit for sale. * Special features: If you disturb a stink bug, you will soon regret it. Many bugs have "stink glands," and the stink bug's are well-developed. When disturbed, the glands release a pungent, foul-smelling chemical, which is spread when the bug flaps its wings. In winter, they go into a state called diapause, which is like hibernation for insects. Stink-bug blood contains glycerol, which works like natural antifreeze to stop the bug from freezing solid. The sperm of male bugs comes in different lengths, some with very long tails, some very short. It's not known why their sperm is like this, but it might be that short sperm swim off to fertilize the female's eggs and the long sperm block the reproductive tract to prevent the sperm of other males from getting in.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 9, 2001
Aphid
* Japanese name: Aburamushi * Scientific name: Aphididae * Description: Aphids are small, green insects that grow 1-6 mm long. They have soft, oval-shaped bodies, sometimes with wings and sometimes without. They have long, tubular mouths, like drinking straws. There are more than 600 species of aphid in Japan alone. They are also called arimaki (ant cow) in Japanese, because they often live with ants (ari), which herd them together (maki). * Where to find them: Aphids are often present on trees and bushes in huge numbers. They live in parks, gardens and in the countryside, from Hokkaido to Okinawa. * Food: Aphids use their needlelike mouthparts to pierce plant stems, leaves or roots and drink the juices. Plant sap is very rich in sugar and water but contains relatively few other nutrients. This means an aphid has to drink large amounts of sap to get enough nutrients. It expels the sugary water it doesn't need -- this is called honeydew (abura in Japanese), and it falls onto whatever is underneath it: the lower leaves of the tree, or maybe a car. The honeydew attracts ants, who come to feed on the sugar. Some ants "farm" aphids for honeydew, like we farm cows for milk, and protect them from predators, such as ladybugs. They might be small, but aphids can cause serious damage to plants. * Special features: "Star Wars Episode II" is called "Attack of the Clones," which would be a good title for a film about aphids: They clone themselves and then attack trees. Some female aphids do not lay eggs but give birth to genetically identical clones. What is more, aphid eggs start developing as soon as they are formed, which means that an aphid can have, within her body, her developing embryonic daughters and, inside them, developing granddaughters. This "telescoping" of generations means that a single aphid can give rise to an immense colony of clones very quickly. Other species reproduce sexually with winged males that fly around looking for mates.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 2, 2001
Asian ladybug
* Japanese Name: Namitento* Scientific name: Harmonia axyridis
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Oct 26, 2001
Lesser mole
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Yen’s fragility raises specter of a new currency war in Asia
Suspected intervention to drag the yen off a 34-year low against the dollar is already seen as unlikely to have a lasting effect if Japan continues alone.
Online booking for Mount Fuji climb to open on May 20
Visitors climb the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak at 3,776 meters. From May 20, climbers will have access to a new online booking system for Mount Fuji's most popular Yoshida trail in Yamanashi Prefecture.
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
Political party Tsubasa no To investigated over election obstruction
Officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police raid the Tsubasa no To office in Tokyo on Monday.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
Japan's logistics firms seek partnerships to cope with driver shortage
Japan Post CEO Tetsuya Senda (right) and his Seino Transportation counterpart Satoshi Takahashi announce their companies' agreement on joint long-haul truck operations, in Tokyo on Thursday.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle
Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER