List of butterflies of Japan

Location of Japan

This is a list of butterflies of Japan. About 327 species are known from Japan.[1]

Japan is home to a nine forest ecoregions, which reflect its climate and geography. The islands that constitute Japan generally have a humid climate, which ranges from warm subtropical in the southern islands to cool temperate on the northern island of Hokkaidō.

Japan lies at the convergence of three terrestrial realms, the Palearctic, Indomalaya, and Oceania, and its flora and fauna combine elements from all three. The ecoregions that cover the main islands of Japan, Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, and Shikoku, along with the nearby islands, are considered part of the Palearctic realm. The island arcs of southern Japan, the Ryukyu Islands to the southwest and the Ogasawara Islands to the southeast, are home to subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregions; the Nansei Islands subtropical evergreen forests ecoregion is part of the Indomalayan realm, while the Ogasawara subtropical moist forests of the Ogasawaras is part of the Oceanian realm.

The terrestrial ecoregions are:

  1. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests: Hokkaidō deciduous forests, Nihonkai evergreen forests, Nihonkai montane deciduous forests, Taiheiyo evergreen forests, Taiheiyo montane deciduous forests
  2. Temperate coniferous forests: Hokkaidō montane conifer forests, Honshū alpine conifer forests
  3. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests: Nansei Islands subtropical evergreen forests, Ogasawara subtropical moist forests.

The most important and threatened butterfly habitat in Japan is Satoyama a Japanese term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land.

Hesperiidae

Papilionidae

Pieridae

Lycaenidae

Nymphalidae

See also

References

  1. ^ The Current Checklist of Japanese Butterflies; Inomata T., Uémura Y., Yago M., Jinbo U. and Ueda K.; The Entomological Society of Japan; 2010-2012

Important literature

  • Adalbert Seitz Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) online text, online plates
  • Fujioka, T., 1975. Butterflies of Japan [1]. 312pp., 137 pls.. Kôdansha, Tokyo (in Japanese)
  • John Henry Leech, 1892-1893. Butterflies from China, Japan and Corea 1: 54 + 297 pp.; 2: 297-681, 1 map; 43 pls. London.
  • Yokoyama, M. & Wakabayashi, M., 1970. Coloured Illustrations of the Butterflies of Japan Hoikusha Publishing Co. Ltd, Osaka.178pp, 74 pls
  • Kawazoé, A. & Wakabayashi, M., 1979. Coloured Illustrations of the Butterflies of Japan. Edn. 2. Osaka, Hoikusha: vii+422 pp, 72 pls, 80 figs.
  • Shonen Matsumura,1904- Nihon senchu zukai or Thousand insects of Japan Tokyo :[Keiseisha?], Meiji 37-40 [1904-1907] online (four volumes)
  • Bernard d'Abrera, 1991-1993 Butterflies of the Holarctic Region, 3 Parts (pt. 1. Papilionidae, Pieridae, Danaidae & Satyridae (partim) -pt. 2. Satyridae (concl.) & Nymphalidae (partim) -pt. 3. Nymphalidae (concl.), Libytheidae, Riodinidae & Lycaenidae., Hill House, Victoria ISBN 0646062557
  • P. A. Ler Ed. 2001 Key to the insects of the Far East of Russia, Vol. 5, Part 3: Trichoptera and Lepidoptera Dal'nauka, Vladivostok ISBN 5804400924
  • Shibatani, A. and S. Ito, 1942. Beitrag zur systematik der Theclinae im kaiserreich Japan unter besonderer berucksichtigung der sogenannten gattung Zephyrus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Nature Life (Kyungpook J. bio. Sci.) 15: 33-46, figs.
  • Pryer, H. J. S., 1886. Rhopalocera Nihonica: a description of the butterflies of Japan, Ed. 1: 12 pp, 3 pls; Ed 2: xiii +35pp, 10pls
  • Igarashi, S. and H. Fukuda. 1997- . The life histories of Asian butterflies Tokai University Press, Tokyo.
  • S Ishikawa, 1994 Cho (Butterflies) Living in Japan Maruzen Company Ltd ISBN 4892427225
  • Motomu Teshirogi, 1997 An Illustrated Book of the Japanese Nymphalidae Tōkyō: Tōkai Daigaku Shuppankai (Tokyo University Press) ISBN 4486010973
  • Motomu Teshirogi, 1997 An Illustrated Book of the Japanese Lycaenidae Tōkyō: Tōkai Daigaku Shuppankai. ISBN 9784486014058
  • Toshio Inomata Ed. Colour photographs by Katsuji Iwao. 1986.Atlas of the Japanese Butterflies Take Shobo Co. Ltd., 7-3, lidabashi 2, Chiyoda, Tokyo, 102 Japan.500 pp., numerous text figs., 86 color plates.
  • Taro Iwase, 1954 Synopsis of the known life-histories of Japanese butterflies The Lepidopterists' News 1954: 95-100 pdf

Papers by Shonen Matsumura, Alfred Ernest Wileman, Atuhiro Sibatani, Siuiti Murayama, Takashi Shirôzu, Richard Paget Murray, Oliver Erichson Janson in Tyô to Ga Series website (open access)

History

  • Wilhem de Haan 1833- with Japanese artist naturalists Keiga Kawahara Kurimoto Masayoshi and others.Fauna Japonica sive Descriptio animalium, quae in itinere per Japoniam, jussu et auspiciis superiorum, qui summum in India Batava imperium tenent, suscepto, annis 1825 - 1830 collegit, notis, observationibus et adumbrationibus illustravit Ph. Fr. de Siebold. Conjunctis studiis C. J. Temminck et H. Schlegel pro vertebratis atque W. de Haan pro invertebratis elaborata (Fauna Japonica in five serial volumes published between 1833 and 1850)
  • Henry John Elwes, 1881 On the Butterflies of Amurland, North China, and Japan Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1881: 856-917
  • Ueno, M., 1987. A history of Japanese Zoology (in Japanese). 531pp. Yasakashobo, Tokyo.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lepidoptera of Japan.
  • Database MOKUROKU Based on Y. Hirashima, 1989 & 1990 Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University and Japan Wild Life Research Center (eds.), 1989, A Check List of Japanese Insects. 1,767 pp, Fukuoka. (In Japanese)
  • Osaka Prefecture University Harmony Museum Lepidoptera collection images including types (under Scientific materials)
  • Butterflies of Asia -Japan
  • Konchu Dictionary of Japanese insect names
  • Kyoichiro Ueda, Yoshihisa Sawada, Yutaka Yoshiyasu and Toshiya Hirowatari, 2000 A list ofJapanese Insect Collection by P. F. von Siebold and H. Burger preserved in Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden, the Netherlands Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist., 19: 43-75, pls. 5. March 31, 2000 online pdf[permanent dead link‍]