Natural-Japan.net

This Hirata Stag Beetle was walking along the same path as me near Yamada Village in Munakata.
Japanese name: hirata-kuwagata
Scientific name: Dorcus titanus

This type of huntsman spider is called kamasu-gumo in Japanese — refering to the weaving pattern on its back (I think).
Scientific name: Thelcticopis severa.
Found near Yokoyama Village in Munakata.

Lots of dragonflies (J: tombo) out and about yesterday as well. Here are two species of damselfly (smaller/thinner) and one true dragonfly.
The blue one looks like a ruler so in Japanese it’s called monosashi-tombo i.e. “ruler damselfly” (it’s a male). The brown one is a female monosashi-tombo. The one with black wings is called haguro-tombo i.e. “black-winged damselfly”. The final picture is an almost-impossible-to-photograph flying Golden-ringed dragonfly (J: oniyanma), which never seem to keep still.
monosashi-tombo = Copera annulata
haguro-tombo = Calopteryx atrata
oniyanma = Anotogaster sieboldii (probably)

English: Lesser Cuckoo
Japanese: hototogisu
Scientific: Cuculus poliocephalus
Found at Yokoyama Village in Munakata (Fukuoka, Japan).
This bird is a brood parasite of the Japanese Bush Warbler (J: uguisu).

This very large hoverfly looks and behaves remarkably like a wasp. It’s one of the biggest hoverflies at 20mm in length.

Japanese: shirosuji-naga-hanaabu
Scientific: Milesia undulata
Found at Yokoyama Village in Munakata (Fukuoka, Japan)

English: Angled Sunbeam
Japanese: uragin-shijimi
Scientific: Curetis acuta paracuta
Found at Yokoyama Village in Munakata (Fukuoka, Japan)

English: Japanese Oakblue Butterfly
Japanese: murasaki-shijimi
Scientific: Narathura japonica
Found at Yokoyama Village in Munakata (Fukuoka, Japan)

I met some entomologists looking for Chestnut Tiger Butterflies (asagi-madara) in our local insect park (hotaru-no-sato), but it was a windy day and pretty cool so they said that they didn’t expect to find any. The reason they were looking is that it’s part of an annual “catch and release” programme to determine the migration paths of this species. It’s amazing how far they fly — coming all the way down to Kyushu from Nagano. Munakata seems to be a popular stopping off point for them.
Anyway, by chance (and because I was looking!), I found four of these butterflies during my walk along a disused mountain road, shielded from the wind. I saw four but only managed to get photos of two of them.

Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae
Paranatica sita
Chestnut Tiger Butterfly
Japanese name = asagi-madara

This beautiful (newly emerged perhaps) Japanese Giant Silkworm Moth (Saturnia japonica, or Caligula japonica) was on a wall in Yamada Village, Munakata. It’s a native of East Asia and has a wingspan of 10-13cm.

Lepidoptera: Saturniidae
Saturnia japonica
Japanese Giant Silkworm Moth
Japanese name = kususan

Shinobu and I went to Oshima in Munakata today. Lots of nature, but the best find of the day was this 1.5m Japanese Ratsnake (aodaisho). A beautiful creature. I caught it so that we could take a closer look. It went crazy after I grabbed it and wrapped itself around my arm, which took a bit of time to untangle as it was quite strong. Of course it was unharmed by the experience and slithered off into the bushes after I released it.

Japanese Ratsnake = Elaphe climacophora
In Japanese = aodaisho