Agricultural Ecology LAB Yamagata Univ. 山形大学農業生態学分野

Many of us may think that most animals in winter are hibernating but not all. My master's degree study is about " the life under the snow" especially about freshwater snails and surprisingly I found some snails active in winter. Kawanina, Semisulcospira libertina , is one of the most active snails in winter. Based on my research these slugs spend their time climbing the walls of the experimental mesocosm. Kawanina remains active even at low temperatures around 1  degree Celcius . These snails are also actively attached to the shells of other species such as Bellamya chinensis . This behavior is very interesting and I can't wait to do more research on it.

  Apple snail is a kind of fresh water snail. Its look is similar with mad snail. But the traits are different between them. Mad snail consumes detritus. On the other hand, apple snail eat plant such as rice. Apple snails were brought from other countries and today, they are known as invasive species giving serious damage to paddy field in Japan. And apple snail oviposits many eggs having pink color. We must not touch those eggs by hand because they have poison. Also, it is not recommended to touch an apple snail by hand. Because it has parasite. Please wash your hands if you touch it. スクミリンゴガイは淡水巻貝の一種です。その外見はタニシと似ていますが、性質は全く違います。タニシはデトリタスを餌とします。一方で、スクミリンゴガイは水稲などの植物を食べます。スクミリンゴガイは国外から持ち込まれた生き物で、今では日本の水田に深刻なダメージを与える侵略的外来種として知られています。さらにスクミリンゴガイは桃色の卵を大量に産みます。それは毒を持っているため、素手で触れてはいけません。また、スクミリンゴガイを手で触ることは推奨されません。なぜなら、その貝は寄生虫を所持しているからです。もしそれを素手で触れた際には手を洗いましょう。

Recently, I saw golden apple snail eggs for the first time. The apple snail eggs looked unusual to me since they were brightly-colored, pink-reddish. The bright color is apparently thought to act as a visual deterrent to predators while a study published one of these proteins known as PcPV2, is a neurotoxin with a lethal effect on the central nervous system of mice and the new research demonstrates that this substance is pretty unusual in number of ways  or instance its structure is of a type known as' AB Toxins 'which were previously known only in certain bacteria and plants, and represents the first record of a defense system employed by plants against predators in an animal. AB toxins tend to be ingested orally and can remain active after passing through the gastrointestinal tract of higher animals where extremes of pH restrict the activity of some other types of toxin. This suggests that the protein evolved in order to convene a survival advantage to the eggs resulted in

Good evening.  I'm sorry for being a day late even though I was in charge yesterday. Today, I was introduced to Indonesia by two Indonesian students in the class of the International Expansion Program. The first surprise is that Indonesia has more than 13,000 islands.There are many people who travel to famous Indonesian islands in Japan, but I didn't know there were so many islands.In addition, the natural environment and characteristics of each island are different, and I was especially shocked by Komodo Dragon.After I was introduced, I introduced my hometown.However, I couldn't explain my hometown in detail, so I wanted to know my hometown well. こんばんは。担当の日が昨日だったのに1日遅れてしまいすみません。 私は今日、国際展開プログラムの授業でインドネシアの学生ふたりからインドネシアについて紹介してもらいました。 まずはじめに驚いたのは、インドネシアには1万3000以上の島があるということです。日本でもインドネシアの有名な島に旅行に行く人はよくいますが、こんなに沢山の島があることを知りませんでした。また、島によって自然環境や特徴が異なり、特にコモドトラゴンに衝撃を受けました。一通り紹介をして頂いた後、自分の出身地の紹介をしました。しかし、自分の出身地について詳しく説明することが出来なかったので出身地についてよく知っていきたいと思いました。 Thank you for the reading. w

  When I was in my dad’s village, I went to the traditional market there. We bought some stuff, mostly foodstuff for our supply back home in Jakarta. We bought some stuff that can’t be found in Jakarta then I found this big thing as I thought it was Cassava. My dad told me it was “ Suweg ” in Javanese. This foodstuff is really big and heavy. I’m still curious after buying this then did a little google research about it. So, in International, it’s called Elephant Foot Yam . No wonder it’s called “elephant foot” when you look at this big thing. This foodstuff is in a similar genus as the “ Konnyaku ” main ingredient, Amorphophallus . For “ Konnyaku ” itself, it’s called “ Porang ” in Indonesia. “ Porang ” and this Elephant Foot Yam really look alike. The simple difference between those is the tuber texture of elephant foot yam is rougher and the color inside of the tuber is orange. Most people in the village eat this elephant foot yam as a substitute for rice or heavy meal. I have tasted

                                                                                                              By :                                            Mr. NKOUM METOU'OU ERNEST             Report presenting a realization of the professional project of training course for         the   Professional Bachelor   in Analysis and Management of the phytosanitary Risk.                                                        Academic year 2012/2013     Abstract . Modern agriculture is dependent on pesticides and other agricultural inputs. These chemicals while helping to take better agricultural yields have a negative impact on the environment, biodiversity and human health, the development of sustainable agriculture therefore requires an integrated management of their use in reducing the risk by Application precautions. This study aims to assess the risks associated with bad practice and uncontrolled use of pesticides on tomato production during the first phase. T

  Nowadays, I am studying about black soldier fly. But I did study about black fungus gnat previously. Black fungus gnats are known to gather around pot plant inside house. And they cause damages to various plants such as onion, carrot and cucumber. Also, we sometimes find them around soybean plants we grow in laboratory. We sometimes use smell trap when finding some flies in our house. But black fungus gnats are not captured by it well. It is effective for those fly to use yellow sticky trap. And commercial light trap is good when you need to capture many flies in not house but facility. 近頃私はアメリカミズアブの研究をしていますが、以前はクロバネキノコバエの研究をしていました。クロバネキノコバエは屋内でのポット栽培植物に群がることで知られています。研究室で栽培しているソラマメでもしばしばクロバネキノコバエを見かけます。また、ネギ・ニンジン・キュウリなど様々な農作物に被害を及ぼすことでも知られています。家でハエを退治したい時に、私達は市販の誘引トラップを使ったりします。しかし、このクロバネキノコバエはなかなか匂いを使用したトラップには誘引されづらいのです。ではどのように対策するかというと、黄色の粘着トラップが効果的です。また、家ではなく施設などでもっと多くの量を退治する必要がある際には市販のライトトラップがおすすめです。

 The wild boars are appearing in the field. They damage the field by digging soil, especially ridge. I had to fix it many times. That task is quite hard work and exhausting. The wild boar ware increasing this year so much and also the damage. Because 2 years ago was light snow like never before. So wild animals could keep active and doing even in winter. Then it leads to more reproduction activity. I was concerned so much at that time about the effect of light snow.  But I could not predict that I would take suffer from that's effect as direct.   水田にイノシシが現れています。これが畦畔を破壊して、その度に修繕作業をやる羽目になっています。去年から今年にかけてイノシシはかなり増加しその被害も等しく増加しています。2年前、山形は今まで経験したことがないほど小雪でした。そのおかげで野生動物たちは冬でも活動を続けられました。つまりは繁殖もしくはそのための摂食ができたのです。当時、この小雪は生物や生態系に大きな影響を与えるだろうと懸念していましたが、まさかこんな形でそれを被るとは予想だにしていませんでした。

 The snow bug. I still remember well that this aphid suddenly appeared on a cold day. After almost all animals disappeared in the late autumn. When people start to consider the first day of snow in the year is coming soon. Then this aphid appears just before the day we have snow. In my home, Hokkaido, this is called snow bug, due to not only their timing of appearance in the year but also their appearance. Their waxy hair looks like snow, but the color is not exactly snow color. Anyway, hope we do have not much snow this year. 先日、雪虫を見かけましたが、、、ここ数年は見てなかったような気がしますね。北海道では雪虫といって、アブラムシの一種ですが、まるで雪のような見た目、それとその発生のタイミング、それがちょうど雪の降る前なんですね。だから、まぁこれは北海道だけかもしれませんが、これが出ると雪降るよ、という。まぁとにかく、今年はあんまりふらないでほしいですね、雪。