Mogami Tokunai’s wood collection from Hokkaido, Japan: an early record of Ainu wood culture

During the court journey to Edo (Tokyo) in 1826, the famous Japan explorer Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866) met an old and wise mathematician, explorer, and ethnographer, Mogami Tokunai (1755–1836). Tokunai not only allowed Siebold to copy sensitive maps of disputed territories in Northern Japan, but also donated him a set of 45 Japanese wood samples, most of them decorated with paintings of the foliage of the trees from which the wood came, and later provided with interesting notes on their timber uses by the Ainu people in “Jezo” (or Ezo-chi, more or less equivalent with modern Hokkaido). Based mainly on earlier detailed studies by Prof. Takao Yamaguchi and Prof. Nobushige Kato, we will discuss this collection in the context of contemporary and later wood collections and its significance for forest products research in and beyond Japan. Other Japanese wood collections taken to the Netherlands by Siebold were used for the very first Ph.D. studies on wood anatomy in Leiden, and possibly also in Munich. Siebold’s most important disciple Ito Keisuke (or Ito “Keiske”, or “Keisuke Itoh”, 1803–1901) oversaw the decoration of a set of painted wood samples for teaching purposes in Tokyo in the 1880s. From the 1870s onwards, Japan was actively promoting its timber resources at World Expositions in Vienna, Philadelphia, and Paris. In the latter two venues with another special type of wood collection: sections mounted on the pages of a book, possibly inspired by a concept developed by the German forestry scientist Hermann Nördlinger.

De rol van Japanners bij het ontstaan van Nippon 1832–1858, de beschrijving van Japan door Philipp Franz von Siebold 1796–1866

The role of the Japanese in the creation of Nippon 1832–1858, the description of Japan by Philipp Franz von Siebold 1796–1866 In the 19th century Japan was still a relatively mysterious land for many Europeans, even after more than a century of trade relations with the Dutch. Once in a while efforts were made to expand the European knowledge of Japan and European scholars tried to explore the country despite the limitations the Japanese put on them. In current research little attention has been paid to the role the Japanese played in collecting information for the advance of European knowledge of Japan. This article discusses the role of the Japanese in the groundwork for Nippon 1832–1858, the description of Japan by Philipp Franz von Siebold 1796–1866. It attempts to answer the question of what this cooperation looked like, which areas of knowledge it affected and what the consequences of the cooperation were for both sides.

New species of Helicopsyche von Siebold 1856 (Trichoptera: Helicopsychidae) from Brazil, including the redescription of Helicopsyche (Feropsyche) planorboides Machado 1957

Helicopsyche has about 270 extant species widely distributed, with highest species diversity in tropical and subtropical areas. Currently, the genus is divided into six subgenera, with only two of them occurring in the Neotropical region. In Brazil, 28 species of Helicopsyche have been recorded, being nine in Cochliopsyche and 19 in Feropsyche. In this paper, we describe, diagnose and illustrate six new species of Helicopsyche subgenus Feropsyche from Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil: Helicopsyche bendego sp. nov., H. daome sp. nov., H. dinoprata sp. nov., H. luziae sp. nov., H. petri sp. nov., and H. shaamunensu sp. nov. Furthermore, H. (F.) planorboides is redescribed based on the holotype and additional specimens; the type series of this species is now deposited in the collection of the Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Finally, Helicopsyche (F.) catoles, H. (F.) guara and H. (F.) planorboides are reported for the first time from Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, the last one also listed for Espírito Santo state, Brazil.

Siebold and Temminck on the distribution of Pteropus dasymallus, the Ryukyu Flying Fox

Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866) was one of the earliest European naturalists to live in Japan. Through most of the nineteenth century, however, until the 1860s, movement of foreigners within Japan was severely restricted, impairing Siebold's ability to observe wildlife in the countryside or collect zoological specimens. Among the Japanese mammals that Siebold was able to see, if not necessarily in the wild, and acquire examples of, was Pteropus dasymallus, the Ryukyu Flying Fox. On the basis of Siebold's early work, Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), in 1825, first described the species scientifically. Siebold's initial observations on the fruit bat's range, however, proved to be incorrect. His notes on the species' distribution in and around Nagasaki in southern Kyushu and Tokyo in central Honshu were particularly contradictory, apparently based, at least in part, upon an initial confusion with either Pteromys petaurista (Japanese Giant Flying Squirrel) or Pteromys momonga (Japanese Dwarf Flying Squirrel).

Does the number of genital organs matter? Case of the seal tapeworm Diphyllobothrium (syn. Diplogonoporus) tetrapterum (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidea)

The seal tapeworm Diphyllobothrium tetrapterum (von Siebold, 1848) Baer, 1932 (syn. Diplogonoporus tetrapterus) is exceptional among cestodes because it possesses two types of the strobila, one with a multiple set of genitalia per proglottid and another with a single set of reproductive organs per proglottid. In this study, Diph. tetrapterum is redescribed on the basis of extensive, well-fixed material from the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus (Linnaeus, 1758)) from Alaska, USA. A critical morphological and molecular study of comprehensive material from several hosts throughout the Northern Hemisphere is provided. As a result, Diplogonoporus mutabilis Belopolskaia, 1960 and Diplogonoporus violettae Yurakhno, 1986 become junior synonyms of Diph. tetrapterum. Our study provides evidence of intraspecific and even individual variability of Diph. tetrapterum in the number of genital complexes, thus making this generic feature questionable for circumscription of the diphyllobothriid genera. The seal tapeworm has been found exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere and exhibits a wide (euryxenous) specificity at the level of the definitive host, having been found in a number of seals, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris (Linnaeus, 1758)), and exceptionally, in other terrestrial mammals. Plerocercoids of Diph. tetrapterum are reported from the second (fish) intermediate host for the first time, in this case the pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha (Walbaum, 1792)) from Alaska.

Engelbert Kaempfer: Amoenitatum Exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum Fasciculi V, quibus continentur variae relationes, observationes & descriptiones rerum persicarum & ulterioris Asiae, multa attentione, in peregrinationibus per universum Orientem, collectae. Lemgoviae 1712. Hrsg. von der Evangelisch-reformierten Kirchengemeinde Lieme in Lemgo. Red. Karl-Rochus Kintscher. Lieme: Selbstverlag, November 2015, ungez. 9 S., 20 S., 912 S., ungez. 32 S., 36 S.

Das aufregende und ereignisreiche Leben Engelbert Kaempfers (Lemgo 1651–1716 Lemgo), das sich hinter den nichtssagenden Geburts- und Todesdaten verbirgt, ist schon seit dem letzten Jahrhundert der Gegenstand einer intensiveren Forschung. Wurde zunächst im 18. Jahrhundert in erster Linie sein Japan-Werk rezipiert,1 so folgte im 19. Jahrhundert die Rezeption und die Nutzung durch weitere Reisende und Wissenschaftler (etwa Philipp Franz von Siebold, Wilhelm Heine oder Johann Justus Rein wären hier an erster Stelle zu nennen, obwohl Kaempfers Arbeiten den Erfordernissen der Wahrnehmung des modernen Japan seit der Öffnung des Landes 1853 nicht vollständig genügten).