Herbivorous Insect Fauna of Kudzu, Pueraria montana (Leguminosae), in Japan

Abstract

Kudzu, Pueraria montana (Lour.) Merr. var. lo bata (Willd.) Maesen et S. Almeida (Legumino sae), is an aggressive invasive weed introduced to the United States in the early 20th century for forage and erosion control (Piper 1920). Kudzu turned out to be harmful, causing economic loss and suppressing native plants (Alderman 1998). The USDA removed it from the list of recom mended ground cover plants in 1953, and it was listed as a U.S. federal noxious weed in 1998 (U.S. Forest Service 2008). Kudzu infests 7 million acres in the United States (Miller & Edwards 1983; Britton et al. 2000), and kudzu's range in North America is still expanding. Sun et al. (2006) identified plant pathogens and 116 insect species associated with kudzu in China, and Tayutivutikul & Kushigemati (1992) made a similar survey in the southwestern part of Japan, and noted that 109 insects and 2 spider mites in Japan feed on kudzu. Here we report the first field surveys for kudzu-feeding insects in central Japan (12 sites in the Kinki District, N34?-36?, E135?-137?; 4 sites in Shiga prefecture, 3 sites in Kyoto prefecture, 2 sites in Hyogo pre fecture, and 1 site in Osaka and Nara prefecture), and in other regions (7 sites, N31?-42?, E130? 141?; 1 site in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Toshigi, Shi zuoka and Kagoshima prefecture, and 2 sites in Tokyo prefecture). Timed visual searches in plots with kudzu were conducted from May to Oct in 2004-2005. Three to 6 plots (2-15 m2) were marked per site, and each was searched for 15 min in 2004 and 5 min in 2005. The total time spent searching was 2050 min in the Kinki District and 395 min in