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The Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund

Introduction to Grant Projects

Takuma Takanashi, Chief Researcher, Department of Forest Entomology, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Study of pest control using weak vibrations, and forest management

Research grant

Project Description

Since insects have the habit of avoiding vibrations traveling through solid media, vibrations can be used to control the behavior of insects. This study clarifies the characteristics of vibrations that control the behavior and senses of forest insect pests (mainly the beetle Monochamus alternatus), and aims to develop methods to use weak vibrations artificially generated in trees to prevent insect damage to forests. This technique may be used instead of chemical pesticides and will enable forest management that will have a minimal effect on the forest ecosystem.

Fields
Preservation of surface soil and forestsPreservation of biodiversity and ecosystem
Grant year
FY2010 Research Grants
Grant term
2 years
April 2011 - March 2013
Grant amount
4,488,000 yen
Activity region
Ibaraki Prefecture and other locations, Japan
Pine seedlings fitted with vibration-generators to inhibit insect behavior

Overview of the Organization

Takuma Takanashi, Chief Researcher
Representative
Takuma Takanashi, Chief Researcher
Profile
Specialist fields
Insect physiology, bioacoustics
Affiliated academic societies
Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology, The Zoological Society of Japan
Background
Graduated, Fculty of Agriculture,Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 1996; Completed Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 2001; Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Univeritsy of Tokyo / Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (National Institute of Agricultural Science), 2003; Researcher, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 2005; Chief Researcher, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 2007; Commissioned Researcher, Neurosensing and Bionavigation Research Center, Doshisha University, 2011
Collaborators
Takuji Koike, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications; Hiroshi Nishino, Assistant Professor, Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University
Research record
  • (1) Variation in courtship ultrasounds of three Ostrinia moths with diff erent sex pheromones. PLoS One 5:e13144, 2010.
  • (2) Moths produce extremely quiet ultrasonic courtship songs by rubbing specialized scales. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 11812, 2008.
  • (3) Vibratory communication in the soil: pupal signals deter larval intrusion in a group-living beetle Trypoxylus dichotoma.. Behav Ecol Sociobiol, in press.
  • (4) Genomic insights into the origin of parasitism in the emerging plant pathogen Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. PLoS Pathog, in press.
  • (5) (Description: Longicorn beetles sense vibrations and perform evasive behavior or mating behavior), Konchuu no Hatsuon ni yoru Komyunikeeshon (Communication by sounds insects make) Hokuryukan (in print)