Phytophagous lady beetle, Epilachana niponica, and its food plants, Cirsium thistles

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1. Three species of the thistles, Cirsium kagamontanum, C.matumurae var. dubium and C.matsumurae var. matsumurae in the Hokuriku and the adjacent areas were studied on their geographical distribution, morphology, and choromozome numbers.2. A new species, C.ashiuense Yokoyama et T.Shimizu was described. The species is closely related to C.Kagamontanum and is tetraploid (2n=68), while C.kagamontanum is diploid.3. Locations of distribution of C.kagamontanum is confirmed in Ishikawa, Toyama and Niigata Prefectures.4. RFLPs analysis of chloroplast DNA were carried out for 13 species of Cirsium, with Synurus Pungesns as an out-group. phylogeny of the thistles examined was not clarified baxause no variation was detected by the analysis.5. Extract from C.kagamontanum leaves deterred the Asiu population of E.niponica from feeding in the bioassay experiments, confirming the existence of anti-feeding chemicals in the thistle leaves.6. Food preference and adaptability of E.niponica local populations to local thistle species were tested by using the pairs of the beetles and thistles from 5 localities.7. Allozyme analysis was carried out on 17 E.niponica, 1 E.pustulosa and 1 E.yastomii populations, and genetic distances were measured for these populations.8. Multivariate analysis was executed on 8 E.nippnica populations by using 13 morphological characters, and morphological distance was calculated for the populations.