Investigation of the insect fauna of northern Vietnam - Particularly in relation to the Japanese fauna -

1994年至1995年，我们对越南北方地区进行了三次考察，对海拔200至2,000米的许多良好森林进行了考察和昆虫学调查。最广泛和深入的调查是在潭岛森林进行的（400- 1200米）和萨帕（1，500 -2，000米），取得了许多新的发现，其中为分析越南北方昆虫区系的性质和起源提供了许多重要资料。已发表17篇论文。越南北方昆虫区系主要包括中国南部、喜马拉雅山脉和印支半岛的昆虫及其近缘种，并发现了几种与日本昆虫关系密切的昆虫。其中一个很好的例子是日本水螅属的水生甲虫（日本水螅科）。该属的成员仅在日本（两种）和喜马拉雅山（一种）发现，第四种在Phang Si Pang山脉发现。（海拔2,000米）在萨帕附近本文报道了在担岛山沙堆中采集到的一种新的日飞蛾-绒蛾（Eterusia nobooi，Zygaenidae），它的近亲是对马群岛特有种渡边绒蛾（Eterusia watanabei）。

Three expeditions were made to the northern areas of Vietnam in a period from 1994 to 1995, and many good forests from 200 to 2,000m in altitude were explored and entomologically investigated. Most extensive and intensive surveys were made in the forests of Tam Dao (400-1,200m) and Sa Pa (1,500-2,000m), bringing forth many new findings, among which were found many important data for analysing the nature and origin of the northern Vietnamese insect fauna.The material obtained were studied by the members of this project and by other Japanese entomologists, and 17 papers dealing with the results obtained were already published. Remaining materials are being studied now, and many more papers are expected to be published in 1996 and succeeding years.The northern Vietnamese insect fauna consists mainly of the members of the southern part of China, the Himalayas and the Indo-Chinese Peninsula and their close relatives, and several insects which have close relationship to those of Japan were also discovered by this research. One of the good examples is the aquatic beetles of the genus Nipponhydrus (Dytiscidae). The members of this genus had theretofore been known only from Japan (two species) and from the Himalayas (one species), and a fourth species was discovered on the Phang Si Pang Mts. (2,000m in alt.) near Sa Pa. A new species of day-flying moth, Eterusia nobuoi (Zygaenidae), was collected at the sammit of Mt.Tam Dao, its closest relative being E.watanabei, a species endemic to the Tsushima Islands.