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ANIMAL TRACKER

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 2, 2002
Flatworm
* Japanese name: Namiuzumushi * Scientific name: Dugesia japonica * Description: Flatworms are tiny animals a bit like miniature slugs, about 1 cm long. They have thin, gray-brown bodies with a brain and sense organs at the head end (you can see the eyes in the photo). Flatworms move by gliding -- rather like slugs, but more elegantly. They are almost transparent and quite boring to look at, but scientists all over the world are studying them for two reasons -- their incredible powers of regeneration and their amazing sex lives. * Where to find them: All over Japan, all year round, in fresh water such as streams, rivers, lakes and rice paddies. * Food: Flatworms are carnivorous, catching and eating other invertebrates. They may also feed on the remains of dead animals. * Special features: If you decide to kill a flatworm by cutting it into 200 pieces, you won't have much success. The pieces will grow, and within a couple of weeks there will be 200 flatworms. Regeneration comes from dormant stem cells that are found throughout the body. When the worm is damaged, the cells of the injured area regenerate the appropriate parts, even if this means growing a new head and brain.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 26, 2002
Robber fly
* Japanese name: Shioya abe * Scientific name: Promachus yesonicus * Description: Robber flies are robust insects with powerful legs. The face of the fly is covered in a dense "beard" of bristles, and there is a deep groove between the eyes. There are many species of robber fly (almost 5,000 worldwide), but despite their strength and size (shioya abe are 23-30 mm long) they are harmless to humans. * Where to find them: All over Japan, from June to August. Robber flies are best seen in open, sunny habitats, grassland, bushes, valleys and open woodland glades. Flies often perch where they can get a good view of passing insects -- their potential prey. They are most active in the hottest part of the day. * Food: Other insects, usually plant-eaters. Robber flies are voracious predators and are sometimes called bee-catchers because they will attack even bees and wasps. They often capture and kill insects much larger than themselves, as can be seen in the photo, and this is why robber flies have such bristly beards: They protect the fly's eyes from the kicks of the struggling prey. On seeing a flying insect, a robber fly will swoop out from its perch and (unless the prey is much too big) catch it with its strong legs. With its pointed mouthparts, the fly then stabs the prey -- either in the "neck" (between the head and thorax), between the thorax and abdomen, in the eyes, or (ouch!) up the end of the prey's abdomen. Enzymes are injected to immobilize the prey and liquefy its tissue. The fly is soon able to suck out the juices. * Special features: Robber flies are ecologically important insects because their appetites keep the numbers of other insects in check. But the larvae can be as voracious as the adults. In China, they are used as bio-control agents, to kill the larvae of scarab beetles that damage wheat crops. Adult male robber flies have an interesting courtship display: They hover in front of the female, displaying a fringe of hairs on their hind feet. They also raise their abdomen and reveal white-haired genitalia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 19, 2002
Backswimmer
* Japanese name: Matsumomushi * Scientific name: Notonecta triguttata * Description:Backswimmers are aquatic insects, true bugs, with piercing mouthparts. They live underwater and are shaped like small boats, with a keel and a pair of oars -- long, powerful hind legs fringed with hairs -- that propel the insect through the water. Large compound eyes are used to search for prey, and the bug's colors camouflage it from both prey and predators. Because these bugs swim upside down, the black-and-white dorsal side of the backswimmer (that is, its back) faces the bottom of the pond. To potential predators or prey looking up, backswimmers appear to blend in with the light on the surface of the pond. The underside of the bug is muddy brown, so anything looking down might mistake it for the bottom of the pond. Backswimmers are 11.5-14 mm long. They have wings and are good fliers. * Where to find them: All over Japan, from April to October, in ponds and lakes. The best chance of seeing them is when they come to the surface. * Food: Backswimmers are among the most aggressively carnivorous of all bugs. They will attack tadpoles, small fish, insects and other arthropods (and fingers, too) and stab them with their sharp beaks. Digestive enzymes are injected into the prey and nutritious fluids sucked out. * Special features: Backswimmers don't have gills -- they breathe air trapped in fringed pockets on their abdomens. They can adjust their depth by releasing air but have to come to the surface frequently to refill. Since they breathe air from the surface, they can tolerate living in polluted ponds with little oxygen. Backswimmers swim upside down, but they orient themselves by light, not gravity. If they are kept in a tank that is lit only from below, the bugs will swim on their fronts.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 12, 2002
Giant centipede
* Japanese name: Oogeji * Scientific name: Thereuopoda clunifera * Description: Someone went a bit leg-crazy when naming these animals. Although they are called centipedes (the name means "100 legs"), oogeji have only 15 pairs of legs. They are not insects (all of which have just three pairs of legs) -- they are myriapods ("many legs"). Insects and centipedes, by the way, all belong to the phylum Arthropoda ("jointed leg"). Giant centipedes have a long, flattened, segmented body and can grow to more than 20 cm long. The head segment is domed, with appendages modified to form sharp fangs. The scientific name, thereuopoda, means "hunting legs." * Where to find them: From Honshu to Kyushu, under stones, the bark of trees or fallen leaves, and in caves. * Food: Insects, snails, earthworms. Giant centipedes can move fast and, unusually, they hunt during the day. When they bite, venom glands inject poison into the prey. They may also bite humans, and though the bite can be painful, it is not dangerous. * Special features: When they hatch, giant centipedes have only seven pairs of legs. What's unusual is that after each molt, a new segment -- and a new pair of legs -- is added. They have the useful and surprising ability to shed their legs if caught by a predator.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 5, 2002
Swallowtail
* Japanese name: Kiageha * Scientific name: Papilio machaon * Description: There are several species of swallowtail butterflies in Japan, all of them easily recognizable by their swallowtails -- the tail-like appendages on the edge of the hind wings. Body length is 36-70 mm. Swallowtails have fully developed forelegs (some species of butterfly have brushlike legs) and beautiful yellow wings with black lines and a blue-black border. There are two orange spots at the base of the hind wings. * Where to find them: In bright places, especially fields and plains, all over Japan, from March to November. New swallowtail adults appear up to four times a year. Swallowtails live in a wide variety of habitats, from the oceanside to mountains 3,000 meters high, and can even be seen in central Tokyo. They are strong fliers, able to travel long distances in search of food.* Food: Nectar from thistles, azaleas, lilies, Japanese parsley and carrots. * Special features: Caterpillars are soft and would make a nice snack for a bird, so, in defense, young swallowtail caterpillars exude a foul smell as they hatch. They are colored black with a white "saddle," which makes them look more like bird droppings than butterfly larvae. As they grow, the caterpillars develop orange markings, telling birds that they would taste bad. After about 20 days, the tiny caterpillar has grown huge and is ready to pupate. The caterpillar attaches itself to a twig and forms either a green or brown pupa, depending on the time of year. A green pupa will hatch in the same year; a brown pupa will hibernate and hatch the following spring. Adult swallowtails can often be seen congregating on the summits of hills, a phenomenon known as hilltopping. This behavior is performed by males, who ride air currents to high points in order (it is thought) to check their territories and to look for females.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 21, 2002
Mayfly
* Japanese name: Monkagero * Scientific name: Ephemera strigata * Description: Mayflies are common, soft-bodied insects with short antennae and mouthparts that are vestigial (not used). They have two long cerci, tail-like structures growing from the end of the abdomen. They are easily recognizable because they hold their wings straight up above the body, and the abdomen is usually curved up away from whatever they are standing on. They have two pairs of wings, but the forewings are much bigger than the hindwings. Body length is 16-22 mm. Males' eyes are specially adapted for spotting females in flight, and adult males' forelegs have a special function too. They are quite long (they may be mistaken for antennae) and are used to grab hold of flying females to mate with them. The larvae have three tails, gills on the abdomen, and they burrow into the silt on the beds of slow-moving rivers. * Where to find them: All over Japan, in most freshwater habitats. Adults can be seen from May to November, though their lifespans are much shorter. "Ephemera," the scientific name, is from the Greek word meaning "living a day." Most species of mayfly live for one to two days, but some live only a few hours. Others survive for more than a week. One species reportedly lives for only five minutes. * Food: Nothing. Adults do not feed -- they are alive for such a short time and there are more important things to do, namely reproduce. The larvae, called nymphs, feed on plant debris and algae, occasionally eating animal material. * Special features: Unique among insects, mayflies molt after reaching the winged stage of their life cycle. The pre-adult mayfly is dull in color due to a covering of fine hairs. If it manages to find a suitable perching place on a tree, it will rest, its skin will split and it will molt into the final adult stage. Now the clock is ticking, and there is but one thing for the mayfly to do -- mate. Males swarm (often above water), dancing up and down in large numbers. Any female approaching the swarm is seized by a male (using his long front legs and special claspers on his abdomen) and mated in the air. The eggs are quickly laid into the water, and the adults, their purpose fulfilled, flutter into the water. If swallows, bats or dragonflies do not pick them off, fish will gladly eat their spent, empty bodies.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 14, 2002
Greater shrew-mole
* Japanese name: Himizu * Scientific name: Urotrichus talpoides * Description: The greater shrew-mole belongs to the mole family but, befitting its name, it has features of both moles and shrews. It has short, thick, dark-brown to black fur that conceals its small eyes and ears, a pointy nose and forepaws that are only slightly broadened -- more shrewlike than molelike. Body length is 9-10 cm, tail length 3-4 cm. Adults weigh between 14 and 20 grams. Although the fur is dense, it is not as lush and velvety as mole fur. It sometimes has a metallic sheen. * Where to find them: The greater shrew-mole is found only in Japan, from Honshu to Kyushu, in open areas, woods and farmland. Unlike true moles, shrew-moles are agile and active aboveground. They are said to be less shy than moles, so are more easily spotted. Like shrews, shrew-moles make surface tunnels in leaves and grass. There are two species in Japan: the greater shrew-mole and the lesser shrew-mole, which lives in coniferous forests in the mountains. Both are common in their respective habitats. Greater shrew-moles forage aboveground as well as in their shallow tunnels and can even climb trees and bushes. In winter, shrew-moles are sometimes found dead in bird-nest boxes, having crawled inside in search of food and been unable to escape -- the lonely, desperate fate of the one in the photo. * Food: Spiders, insect larvae, small insects such as ants and anything that can't put up a fight, such as worms, snails and slugs. Also, arthropods such as centipedes and sow bugs and even fungi and seeds. * Special features: The shrew-mole's densely haired tail is often thickened with fat. During the cold winter months, the animal can metabolize the fat in its tail to provide it with valuable energy. Around Tokyo, males are in good enough condition to start mating from mid-February to May, and females become pregnant in March and April. Baby shrew-moles are born (three or four to a litter) in April and May. Further south, mating starts in January and young are born as early as March. If food is plentiful and females are in good condition, there may be another round of reproduction, with more babies born from June to September. Gestation and lactation periods are short, just four weeks each.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 7, 2002
Slender shrew
* Japanese name: Togarinezumi * Scientific name: Sorex gracillimus * Description: The shrew is the archetypal small furry mammal, resembling the first mammals that ever existed. It has brown fur with a white underside, a long tail, small ears and eyes, and a pointy nose. Slender shrews are 6-7 cm long. Shrews were long thought to be the smallest mammals, but then the hummingbird bat was discovered and that claimed the title. * Where to find them: Slender shrews are found in Hokkaido and their close relatives, Laxman's shrews, are found in Hokkaido and Shikoku. They live in fields and grassland, woods and forests. Shrews make tunnels in grass and dead leaves; these act as foraging thoroughfares and can be found more easily than the shrews themselves. Shrews make high-pitched squeaks, usually when they meet another shrew. It has been suggested that the squeaks have an ultrasonic, echolocation function like the squeaks of bats. However, it seems more likely that the piercing squeaks are a form of aggressive communication -- when two shrews meet, squeaking continues until one of the shrews retreats. During these encounters, shrews are less wary about staying under cover, providing a better opportunity to spot them. * Food: Spiders, insect larvae, small insects such as ants, and worms and snails. Shrews have extremely high metabolic rates, so they need to eat often. They have a three-hour feeding cycle -- they feed for three hours and rest for three, though they are more active at night. A shrew deprived of food for more than a couple of hours, say if it gets trapped in a discarded bottle, will probably die. If you empty an old can or bottle, you can sometimes find the skeleton of a shrew. * Special features: Shrews have scent glands on their flanks that mark the grass and leaves in their tunnels and denote ownership. A rutting male may pick up the scent of a female as he crosses her trail, and track her down. Cats often kill shrews, but don't eat them; it seems that the scent glands make the shrew taste bad. This doesn't stop cats from dumping them on your doorstep though.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 31, 2002
Black soldier fly
* Japanese name: Amerika mizuabu * Scientific name: Hermetia illucens * Description: Black soldier flies look a bit like wasps, but they have no sting and are not interested in humans -- at least while we are alive. They are robust black flies about 15 mm long, with wings that lay over the body when at rest. They have "elbowed" antennae -- antennae with a kink in them. Their feet have three pads. * Where to find them: In gardens, woods and fields. Soldier flies are quite lazy and can be seen sitting in the sun on rocks or on plants. They are also often found indoors, in bathrooms and kitchens, and are common in outside toilets. Though black soldier flies are found all over Japan, they are not native to these islands: They originate in the United States, hence their Japanese name. * Food: The larvae, sometimes called "compost grubs," are natural recycling machines. They have chewing mouthparts and feed on algae and decomposing organic matter -- including fruit and dead animals. Some biomanagement companies want to use black soldier fly larvae to process household and agricultural waste, producing high-protein pupae that can be fed to poultry and fish. Yum. * Special features: Many flies lay eggs on animal corpses, and some are forensically important because they lay eggs on dead humans. This can give police investigators important clues about the location of death (and thus whether the body was moved after death), the season of death and the time since death, because different species of flies are active in different areas and at different times of the year. Most flies, like common house flies, like to lay eggs on fresh meat, but black soldier flies are unusual because they prefer to lay eggs on bodies that have been dead for 20-30 days, by which time the body is in a dry (post-decay) stage of decomposition. Although the adults have relatively short lives, the larvae take around 55 days to grow and develop into adults. This means that forensic teams presented with a badly decomposed body are able to estimate the time of death from the stage of development of the black soldier fly larvae that infest it.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 24, 2002
Wolf spider
* Japanese name: Komori-gumo * Scientific name: Pardosa astigera * Description: Wolf spiders are dark brown, predatory and fast-moving spiders measuring 7-10 mm long. Females may continue to grow after they are sexually mature. They do not spin webs like many spiders. They have eight eyes, in pairs: Two large eyes facing forward provide binocular vision; four smaller eyes in a row allow closeup vision; and two slightly smaller eyes, at each side of the head, are used for scanning for predators behind and to either side. Wolf spiders often have dark stripes on the head and abdomen. * Where to find them: On sunny, sparsely vegetated ground all over Japan. The species is sometimes gregarious, occurring in groups. * Food: Wolf spiders got their name because they were once thought to hunt their prey in packs, like wolves. In fact, they are solitary hunters. They hunt by day, chasing down their prey -- small insects such as springtails and flies. Prey are impaled on the spider's fangs, and venom and digestive juices are injected. Once the inside of the insect has turned to soup, it is sucked dry. Wolf spiders feed in a secluded place and spend their nights in a burrow, either self-dug or one abandoned by another animal. They may use the same burrow for their whole lives. If food is scarce, wolf spiders may cannibalize immature spiders. * Special features: Courtship in wolf spiders is complex and can be dangerous. Males try to attract females by waving their palps (sensory structures attached to the head). If the female likes what she sees, she will allow the male to transfer sperm. If not, she may eat him. The female lays eggs onto a sheet of silk and covers them with another sheet. She then picks up the bundle with her fangs and, rotating it, covers it in more silk. Finally, it is attached to the spinnerets at the rear of the abdomen. The female carries the egg sac around and can often be seen with it attached (see photo). After about three weeks, the female opens the sac and 50-200 spiderlings emerge. The spiderlings climb onto the female's back, where they will live for another week. By then, they are fully independent and able to hunt for themselves. Females produce two to four egg sacs during their two-year life span.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 17, 2002
Long-armed shrimp
* Japanese name: Tenaga-ebi * Scientific name: Macrobrachium nipponese * Description: Long-armed shrimp are accurately named. They are crustaceans in the family that includes lobsters and crabs, all of which have 10 pairs of legs. In the long-armed shrimp, the first five pairs are the walking legs, the second five the swimming legs. The second pair of walking legs are much longer than the others, and they are longer in males than in females. The scientific name means "big arms." Also known as giant freshwater prawns, long-armed shrimp grow to around 10 cm long, sometimes more, depending on their diet. Adults sometimes develop a blue-green color, sometimes brown, again depending on diet. * Where to find them: In rivers and streams in Honshu and northern Kyushu. There are 12 species of long-armed shrimp in Japan, most of them living in the Ryukyu Island group, but three species live in Kyushu and one in Honshu. Some larger species are commercially cultured. * Food: The larvae eat aquatic insects and their larvae, as well as algae, mollusks, worms, fish and, if scavenging, the feces of fish and other animals. Adults mainly feed on algae. * Special features: Like all crustaceans, long-armed shrimp have a hard exoskeleton that they must molt in order to grow. Reproduction can only occur between a hard-bodied male and a soft-bodied female. This means males must catch females just after they molt and deposit sperm in a mass beneath the female's swimming legs before her new exoskeleton hardens. Females lay their eggs into the sperm mass, where they are fertilized. The eggs are then drawn into a brood chamber under the female's tail. The mother keeps the eggs clean and aerated by movements of her tail. The eggs hatch after about three weeks. The bigger the female, the more eggs she produces. At high densities, males become territorial; their long arms are useful for fighting.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 10, 2002
Crane fly
* Japanese name: Kiriuji gaganbo * Scientific name: Tipula aino * Description: Crane flies are slender insects with light-brown bodies, a black rim around the wings and long legs that dangle beneath them when they fly. This gives them their other English name (used by children): daddy longlegs. Crane flies are true flies, which means they only have one pair of wings (unlike, say, dragonflies, which have two pairs). Where the hind wings would be are a pair of pin-shaped "halteres," which act like gyroscopes and help the fly balance itself in the air. The dangling legs easily break off (especially if pulled by a vindictive child). Larvae have soft bodies and move by wriggling like a maggot. Adults are 14-18 mm long. * Where to find them: Around rice fields, farms and ponds all over Japan. Adults can be seen twice in the year, from March to June and again from September to November. Females lay eggs in soil, and the larvae live underground. * Food: The larvae have a well-developed head capsule, with strong jaws used to chew up rotten plant matter and the roots of young plants. The adults do not bite. They have soft mouthparts at the end of a beaklike head, which they use for lapping up nectar from flowers. * Special features: Crane flies are nocturnal and will be attracted to lights at night. They can also often be seen in a swarm. Unlike, say, locust swarms, which form when food is superabundant, crane flies swarm when they want to reproduce. There are few females present in the swarms, but when one does appear, attracted by the large group of males, she is quickly grabbed by a male and whisked away. Mating pairs can sometimes be seen flying around joined at the abdomen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 3, 2002
Water strider
* Japanese name: Himeamenbo * Scientific name: Gerris latiabdominis * Description: Water striders are common, semiaquatic insects, with bodies that are brown on top and silver-white underneath. They have three pairs of long legs, the front pair being well-separated from the others. Water striders use their middle legs to row or skate themselves quickly across the surface of water; their hind legs trail behind, acting as a sort of rudder. Water striders are sometimes called pond skaters, which more accurately indicates where they live and how they move. The ends of their legs are covered in very fine hairs that are hydrophobic ("water hating"), so the water strider is able to walk on water. The weight of the insect leaves little dimples on the water surface. * Where to find them: From March to October, on still ponds and lakes from Hokkaido to Kyushu. * Food: Small insects that fall onto the water. The forelegs of water striders are sensitive to surface vibrations, which help them to detect potential prey. Water striders are also able to leap short distances from the water surface to catch flying insects. Once an insect has been caught, the water strider stabs it with its beaklike mouth and injects it with a digestive enzyme. When the insides of the prey have dissolved, the water strider sucks it dry. * Special features: Most of the time, male water striders are in the mood to copulate. Females, however, don't always want to waste time with males when they could be feeding. So there is often a violent struggle between a male who wants to copulate and a female trying to resist. Males use special grasping genitals to latch onto any female who passes by, but females have spines on their abdomens to help dislodge unwanted males. Once a male has secured a female, he'll hold on for a long time, and male-female pairs (as in the photo) can often be seen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 26, 2002
Indian fritillary
* Japanese name: Tsumaguro-hyomon * Scientific name: Argyreus hyperbius * Description: This is a common butterfly in the nymphalid family. It has an orange body and distinctively marked orange wings with black spots (hyomon means "panther pattern"). The female, but not the male, has black wingtips. The underside of the wing is bright yellow and white; the body is 27-38 mm long. Nymphalids' front legs are short and brush-like and are not used for walking. Like all butterflies, they have club-shaped antennae (see photo). The caterpillar is black with orange spots and has big tufts and black spines -- any bird that eats it will choke as the spines catch in its throat. * Where to find them: From Honshu to Kyushu, in gardens and parks in towns, and in fields and woodland in the countryside. They can be seen from April to November, and the adults breed from late summer to autumn, sometimes having several broods a year. Females lay eggs in the ground near host plants that the larvae feed on. The eggs hatch after two or three days. Caterpillars emerging late in the year hibernate until the following spring. * Food: The caterpillars feed on flowers such as dog violet and pansy; the adults drink nectar from flowers with their long proboscis (tongue). * Special features: The female mimics an unpalatable species of butterfly (Anosia chyrisppus), so predators that have been sickened by eating the bad-tasting species avoid eating female Indian fritillaries, even though they might taste good. Fritillaries are strong flyers (sometimes migrating long distances), and during the breeding season, males can often be seen chasing females in an elaborate courtship dance.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 19, 2002
Copperhead snake
* Japanese Name: Nihon mamushi * Scientific name: Agkistrodon blomhoffii * Description: Copperheads are reddish-brown, coppery colored snakes of the viper family. They have thick bodies, 40-70 cm long, with chestnut-brown rings. * Where to find them: In forests and surrounding farmland, from Hokkaido to Kyushu. During winter, copperheads may nest together communally or with other species of snakes. * Food: Mainly frogs, rats and mice, but also small birds and lizards. A prey animal is typically ambushed, bitten once and released. The snake's venom is hemolytic, which means that it dissolves red blood cells. The snake will track the poisoned animal until it dies. Young copperheads feed on insects, especially caterpillars, biting them and holding them in the mouth until they die. When a female is carrying young, she won't eat much because most of the space in her body is filled with developing eggs. However, females don't lay eggs, as most reptiles do -- they give birth to 5-6 live baby snakes about 20 cm long. And then abandon them. * Special features: Animals that hunt at night need a way to locate their prey. Owls have good night vision, bats have a radar. Copperhead snakes have temperature-sensitive pit organs on each side of the head, between the eye and nostril. This enables the snake to detect heat sources -- like a mouse -- and to strike and bite with accuracy, even in the dark. Copperheads have hollow fangs which they use to inject their venom. The copperhead's poison is stronger than that of the feared habu of Okinawa, but the volume injected is less. They do bite humans, usually if they are accidently trodden on (they are often well camouflaged). Though painful, copperhead bites are rarely fatal -- although immediate medical attention is necessary.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 12, 2002
Humpback whale
* Japanese name: Zatokujira * Scientific name: Megaptera novaeangliae * Description: Measuring 12-14 meters, weighing 25-30 tons and with flippers up to 5.5 meters long, the humpback whale is unmistakable. It is black, with white patches on the flippers, which may also be encrusted with barnacles. The huge mouth (if you ever happened to look inside it) contains 540-800 baleen plates -- the filters that the whale uses for feeding. Newborns are 4-5 meters long. Humpbacks are some of the most acrobatic whales and get their English and Japanese names from the curving way they dive. The scientific name means "big-winged New Englander" -- a reference to the huge flippers (used to maneuver, herd fish, slap water and touch their young), and the fact that it was first seen off the coast of North America, New England. * Where to find them: In this part of the world, off the coast of Okinawa and the Ogasawara Islands, where the photo was taken. But humpbacks are renowned for the huge distances they migrate. Some populations in the Caribbean travel to Iceland and Norway during the summer, returning to breed in warmer waters in the winter. Hunting severely depleted numbers, and despite the international ban on commercial whaling in 1985, the humpback is still listed as vulnerable. * Food: Krill and shoaling fish such as herring, mackerel, sand lance and capelin. Japan claims that whales eat commercially exploited fish and uses this as justification for resuming commercial whaling, but humpbacks are generalized feeders -- they eat a wide range of prey. * Special features: In breeding areas, males sing a remarkable courtship song, lasting from 35 minutes to several days, pausing only to take a breath. The male introduces themes into his songs, repeating them over and over. If he successfully attracts and impregnates a female, gestation of the fetus takes about 11 months. Mothers nurse their young with nutritious milk for about five months, after which the baby starts eating solids. Humpbacks have several special techniques for catching food, the most impressive being "bubble netting." The whale dives under a shoal of fish and spirals upwards, blowing bubbles in a circle. The bubbles "herd" the fish into the center of the circle, and the whale swims up through the net with its mouth open, gulping down all the prey.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 5, 2002
Fruit fly
* Japanese name: Shojobae * Scientific name: Drosophila melanogaster * Description: This is a tiny (3-mm) fly, with red eyes and one pair of wings. It is almost too small to notice, yet the fruit fly is one of the world's most important organisms. Study of the fruit fly led directly to the science of genetics, and it is now one of the most well-understood animals in existence. The fruit-fly genome has been sequenced: It has roughly 14,000 genes, less than half the number found in humans. * Where to find them: Often around bowls of fruit in people's houses, but also in gardens and parks. * Food: Rotting fruit. Females lay eggs 0.5 mm long into soft parts of fruit, and the next day a wormlike larva hatches out. The larva grows and molts four times, before forming an immobile pupa. Inside the pupa the larva's body is completely remodeled; a few days later an adult, winged fly emerges. * Special features: One of the most important things we've learned from fruit flies is how organisms grow from an egg to an embryo to a fully developed adult. Like the instructions for baking a cake, genes tell the embryo what to do at each stage of development -- and make those things happen, like a recipe that cooks itself. One gene might control how much of a certain protein gets made, like the recipe directing how much egg goes into the cake. It turns out that many of the genes in the fruit-fly recipe are the same as in the human recipe. This means that not only do some genes in flies and humans do the same thing, but they also have a common origin, far in our evolutionary past.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 29, 2002
Earthworm
* Japanese name: Aka mimizu * Scientific name: Lumricus rubellus * Description: An earthworm's body consists of a tube within a tube. The inner tube is a digestive tract, the outer is segmented and muscular. Between the two are reproductive organs, and running the length of the body is a simple nervous system. At one end is a head, at the other, an anus. On each segment of the outer tube are two pairs of tiny bristles, which the worm uses for crawling -- or for gripping onto the walls of its burrow if a bird tries to pull it out. * Where to find them: In soil and decaying plant matter, all over Japan. Different species of earthworm live in different parts of the soil, and some (night crawlers) come out at night to feed on plant debris. * Food: Plant matter. Earthworms process huge amounts of plant litter, converting it into rich topsoil full of nutrients, which plants use to grow. In 1881, Charles Darwin said, "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures." That's because without earthworms, nutrients in soil would quickly be lost. Worms excrete "casts" of soil, which retain soil nutrients and improve the soil structure. * Special features: Contrary to popular belief, if you chop an earthworm in half, you don't get two new worms. The nerve cord ends with a "ganglion," a primitive brain, at the head end. Only the bit with the brain survives when a worm is chopped in half by a bird or an inquisitive child. Earthworms often have a "saddle" halfway down their bodies. This looks like a scar but isn't -- it's where baby worms come from. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, which means that male and female sexual organs occur in the same animal. When they reproduce, two worms coil around each other and both animals transfer sperm into the saddle of the other. Eggs are fertilized in the saddle, which becomes a cocoon for the developing eggs. After a few weeks, the cocoon/saddle is slipped off, like a ring from a finger, and left under the soil. The young worms hatch out from it.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 22, 2002
Asian hive bee
* Japanese name: Nihon mitsubachi * Scientific name: Apis cerana * Description: Asian hive bees are social insects. Hairy and bullet-shaped, they have well-developed tongues and back legs with special hairs that mesh together to form a flexible basket for carrying pollen. Bees are very strong and are able to carry heavy loads of pollen (sometimes up to half their body weight). Workers can often be seen returning to their nests, laden with yellow pollen. Queens are 19 mm long and worker females and the rarer males are 13 mm. * Where to find them: From Hokkaido to Kyushu, in hilly countryside, all year round. * Food: Nectar and pollen. When they're not in their nests, bees spend much of their time in and on flowers, so they become dusted with pollen. Flying to another flower transfers pollen, which fertilizes the flower. Larvae in the nest are fed by the workers. Larvae that will become workers are raised on pollen and nectar, but the select few that will become queens are fed "royal jelly." This is a special mixture of fat and protein secreted by glands in the mouths of the workers. The diet ensures that the insects grow larger than usual and develop the egg-laying ability of queens. Some humans even eat royal jelly, as a health food. * Special features: Social insects form some of the most complex animal communities in the natural world. The systems work because the queen is the only member of the society allowed to reproduce and the workers devote themselves to helping her, without laying eggs of their own. At least, that's the idea. Asian hive bee workers, like those of some other social insects, buck the system. One study found that in any nest, 1.5 percent of workers develop eggs. This might not sound like much, but it is serious enough that bees have evolved a policing system to enforce the "law" of the hive. Worker bees inspect the eggs and eat any that have been laid by other workers. How do the police bees tell the difference between queen-laid and worker-laid eggs? The queen's eggs are marked with a "royal pheromone," a chemical that only the queen can make.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 15, 2002
Harvest mouse
* Japanese name: Kayanezumi * Scientific name: Micromys minutus * Description: This is Japan's smallest mouse, growing 5-8 cm long and weighing only 5 grams. Harvest mice have long, prehensile tails which they use for gripping the stems of grass when climbing. They have stubby noses and hairy ears; their fur is russet-orange in color except for underneath, where it is white. Harvest mice have poor vision but an exceptional sense of hearing. If they hear a rustle from as far as 7 meters away, they'll freeze or dive for cover. * Where to find them: Honshu (apart from the central regions) and Kyushu. Harvest mice inhabit grasslands, farmland, fields and marshes. The Japanese name refers to the kaya, or pampas grass, they often live in. But changes in land use have made the harvest mouse rare. They are active year-round, but in winter spend most of their time in tunnels in hay bales, or in shallow burrows in the ground. * Food: Harvest mice have very high metabolic rates and eat seeds, berries and insects. They'll also take moss, roots, fungi and wild strawberries. Harvest mice have short lives of about 1 1/2 years -- that's if they're not eaten by weasels, stoats, foxes, cats, owls, hawks or crows. But cold weather is the main cause of mortality. * Special features: Harvest mice are excellent climbers. Pregnant females build nests at night. Resting on a plant stem, with their long tail wrapped around the stem for support, females strip lengths of pampas grass and weave the outer frame of the nest. The lining is made by poking other types of grass through the frame. A nest for raising young is about 10 cm in diameter, roughly the size of a tennis ball (see photo, though this is not their preferred home); everyday nests are 5 cm. Females give birth to about five young and may have three broods a year. The young are blind and helpless at birth but grow exceptionally quickly. By 11 days the babies begin to explore outside the nest; and by 16 days their mother abandons them to build a new nest. From then on, the babies must fend for themselves.
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