| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 1998: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 1997: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
A tephritid leafminer, Stenomocera montivaga Ito, 1984, is characterized by its unique leaf-mining behavior, that is, it at first crosses the leaf blade and then mines the area encircled by the midrib-crossing mine. I analyzed the mining pattern of this species, and discussed the adaptive significance of this unique leaf-mining behavior. The egg was layed just near the leaf tip, and the hatched larvae mined along the leaf margin linearly. On the halfway of the leaf margin, the larvae abraptly turned and started cross the leaf blade, and when it reached the opposite margin of the leaf, it urned to the tip and followed the margin again. The encircled distal area colored yellow or purple, depending on plant species. I measured changes of various chemicals in the colored area by HPLC, and detected a chemical which increased specifically in the encircled area. While the substance have not yet identified, the production is thought to be induced by the leafminer's midrib-crossing.
I have been acumutating information of host records and mining patterns of all groups of leafminers in Japan. I have recorded at least 1455 species of leafminers on native plants in Japan. The host plants cover all groups of terrestrial plants, i.e., mosses, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. 45 insect families were recorded as groups at least some members of which were leafminers; 5 families in Coleoptera, 1 in Hymenoptera, 10 in Diptera and 29 in Lepidoptera. I made a tentaive list of leafminers with their host plants, and a tentative plants with their leafminers.
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