Hemiptera: Heteroptera : Alydidae
Riptortus clavatus
Bean bug = hoso-heri-kamemushi
Location: Path between woods and fields near Munakata Common (map)
Monthly Archives: December 2007
Southern Green Stink Bug
Southern Green Stink Bug nymph.
Hemiptera: Pentatomidae
Nezara viridula
Southern Green Stink Bug = minami-ao-kamemushi
Location: Path between woods and fields near Munakata Common (map)
Angled Sunbeam Butterfly
This butterfly has such a beautiful name = “angled sunbeam” in English and ura-gin-shijimi in Japanese (where gin means silver). The underside of the wings are a silvery white and the topsides are brown and white for females and brown and orange for males. [The photos show a female specimen].
Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae
Curetis acuta paracuta
angled sunbeam butterfly = ura-gin-shijimi
Location: Sweet chestnut grove at the edge of Fureiai-no-mori in Munakata (map)
Persimmon Tree
This persimmon tree (kaki) looked so beautiful against the blue sky.
Diospyros kaki = Japanese kaki persimmon = kaki
Climbing Jouyama (Mt. Jou)
The kids and I decided to celebrate the 1st of December with a hike up one of our nearby mountains, Jouyama (369m). It looked pretty with the autumn colours, and plenty of other people had also decided to climb. The hike is up a steep path but there are plenty of steps and the distance is only around 2km (round trip), so it’s not too bad. The view from the top is really impressive – right across Munakata and out to the islands.
In the small hut on the summit is a visitors’ book, in which everyone writes their names and how many times they’ve climbed the mountain so far this year. Lots of people had written 100, 200 or even 300 times. The kids proudly signed our names and wrote “once” for our number of times!!
Location: Jouyama is located above Fukuoka University of Education in Akama (map).
Fruit fly
Bibionid Fly
Bibionid flies (ke-bae) have many common names in the USA, the most common being “march flies” or “love bugs” (although these are different species to the one below). The larvae are in huge numbers in the soil/leaf-litter of the forest floor and are very important for decomposition and the recycling of nutrients.
University of Florida article on love bugs here.
Wikipedia article on love bugs here.
Bibio omani on Gifu University insect site here.
It was getting dark when I took these photos, so they are pretty poor quality.
Diptera: Bibionidae (= ke-bae)
Bibio omani (I think)
Location: Sweet chestnut grove at the edge of Fureiai-no-mori in Munakata (map)