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April 29, 2024
 

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ANIMAL TRACKER

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 25, 2001
Spring cicada
* Japanese name: Haruzemi * Scientific name: Terpnosia vocua
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 18, 2001
Pipistrelle bat
*Japanese name: Abura komori *Scientific name:Pipistrellus abramus
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 11, 2001
Water scorpion
*Japanese name: Kooimushi *Scientific name:Diplonychus japonica *Description: Water scorpions are aquatic insects that look a bit like beetles. They have wings, but they don't have the protective shell that beetles have. Their mouthparts are also unlike beetles: They have a sharp beak that is used for feeding. Their mid- and hind-legs are flat and broad like oars, and fringed with hairs to improve swimming ability. The forelegs are strong and sharp, and are used for catching prey -- and for biting your finger if you're not careful. Water scorpions have a special pair of breathing tubes that poke out of the end of their abdomen. The insects push these through the water surface when they need more air. Adults are 17-20 mm long.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 4, 2001
River damselfly
*Japanese name: Kawatombo *Scientific name: Mnais costalis *Description: Damselflies perch with their wings folded shut (their bigger cousins, dragonflies, perch with their wings held open). There are many damselflies that live around rivers, but some male river damselflies have orange wings, making them easy to identify. Another, smaller type of male has clear wings. Both types of male have metallic-blue bodies. Females have clear wings and green bodies. Adults are 49-63 mm long. *Where to find them: Flying above stony mountain streams, from May to July. Males with orange wings will often perch on roots and bits of wood in the river, males with clear wings stick to vegetation on the riverbank. You may see two orange-winged males flying in an ever-higher spiral above a log in the river -- they are fighting over ownership of the log. If you look carefully, you might be able to see females laying their eggs into the log. *Food: Damselflies (and dragonflies) have hairs on their legs that help form a basket when the legs are held together; this is used as a kind of net to catch other flying insects. Despite what you may have heard, damselflies don't bite humans. As aerial hunters, they have excellent vision of almost 360 degrees, which means they can see above, below and behind themselves at the same time. *Special features: Logs in the river are valuable because females visit them to lay their eggs. The last male to mate with a female will be the father of the eggs. So males will guard females when they are laying their eggs (see photo). Orange-winged males are built for fighting, with big muscles in their thorax; their orange wings advertise that they are fighters. But there is another way to get females. Instead of fighting, clear-winged males sneak onto the territory of orange-winged males and try to steal their females. Fighting all the time gets orange-winged males lots of females, but it takes up lots of energy. Clear-winged males are weaker, but live longer than orange-winged ones. In the end, clear-winged and orange-winged males generally father the same number of offspring.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 27, 2001
Scorpion fly
*Japanese name:Shiriage mushi *Scientific name: Panorpa japonica * Description: Males are unmistakable -- the abdomen is curled like a scorpion's. The wings, which are held flat when resting, are clear with black spots at the ends, and the head has a large "beak" that is used for feeding. Adults are 15-22 mm long. *Where to find them: On bushes and around forest edges in lowland areas from April to May, then after the rainy season, from July to September. *Food: Scorpion flies will catch live insects such as caterpillars, but will also scavenge dead insects and steal prey from spiders' webs. They will also feed on ripe fruit and pollen. They stab their prey with their beak and drain the insides. * Special features: Like in other species, males fight among themselves to get females. Male scorpion flies have different methods of getting females. Some males will catch a caterpillar and offer it to the female as a gift. While she is eating it, he will attempt to mate with her. Males also release a pheromone to attract females, and it turns out that males that smell best to females also have the best-developed bodies. That doesn't mean they have the biggest bodies, just the most symmetrical. Some males, if they can't catch a gift or attract females with pheromones, try to mate females by force.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 20, 2001
Tiger beetle
*Japanese name: Hanmyo *Scientific name: Cicindela chinensis japonica * Description: Tiger beetles have strong jaws and metallic blue, red and green bodies. The pattern on their bodies makes it difficult for them to be spotted by enemies -- and by us, too. You're most likely to see tiger beetles flying short distances, close to the ground. Watch for where they land, and sneak up on them. Adults are 20 mm long. *Where to find them: Tiger beetles are active on sunny days from April to August. They live in flat, sandy or rocky areas, on trails and in forest openings. * Food: The eating habits of tiger beetles are hinted at in their name. They are predatory insects that ambush and kill other insects with their strong jaws. Their larvae are also predatory, lurking in holes in the ground into which they drag unsuspecting insects. *Special features: Predators have to move fast to catch their prey. Tiger beetles run in zig-zags along the ground on their long legs and can quickly take flight, unlike most other beetles. Hidden folded under their shiny, protective elytra is a pair of wings that can instantly unwrap.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 13, 2001
Paper wasp
*Japanese name: Futamon ashinagabachi *Scientific name: Polistes chinensis * Description: Paper wasps are social insects, meaning that they live together in a colony. A queen lays eggs, and worker insects feed the larvae. They have yellow and black stripes like regular wasps, but paper wasps are easy to identify because they dangle their long legs under their body when they fly. They also have bright orange antennae. They grow up to 16 mm long. * Where to find them: Around humans -- houses, sheds, buildings and parks. In spring the queen wasp builds a nest of hexagonal cells made from chewed-up wood fibers. Paper wasps are active from April to October. Colonies can contain up to 30 adult wasps, but do not approach a paper wasp's nest to see for yourself: The workers may sting you to drive you away. * Food: As well as pollen from flowers, paper wasps eat other insects. They especially like caterpillars, and some butterfly populations have been wiped out because of paper wasps. Sometimes they even cannibalize paper wasps from other nests. * Special features: The queen paper wasp is the only member of the colony to lay eggs. The workers are females, but they can't lay eggs as their ovipositor is modified into a weapon -- a sting that feels like a hot needle. Male paper wasps look for queens to mate with, and then die. Males can't sting because they have no ovipositor. The queen sleeps throughout winter.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 6, 2001
Bee-fly
* Japanese name: Birodo tsuriabu
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