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Yasuyuki
Watanabe’s Room
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Yasuyuki Watanabe

Born in September 1951
Nature photographer
Councilor of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan
Director of the Japan Butterfly Conservation Society
Advisory Board Member of the AIRS Journal of Entomology

For more than half a century, he has been active mainly in photographing the ecology of insects, while also studying the immature stages and adult ecology of butterflies. In Japan, he has conducted ecological studies of alpine butterflies, particularly in the Daisetsuzan Mountains of Hokkaido and the Northern Alps of Honshu. From 1989, he explored mainland China for approximately ten years. Beginning in 1998, he surveyed unexplored areas in Kachin State, Myanmar, and in 2014 climbed Mt. Saramati, the highest peak of the Naga Hills. Since 2015, he has participated in AIRS expeditions in Vietnam. He has also conducted field surveys and photography in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Bhutan, South America, Alaska, and Primorsky Krai, Russia.

He is the author of numerous books, including Alpine Butterflies of Japan (Hoikusha, 1985), Luehdorfia japonica (Hokkaido University Press, 1996), Butterflies of China (Tombo Shuppan, 1998), and Parnassius eversmanni (Hokkaido University Press, 2000).

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Nature of the Daisetsuzan Mountains

Five species of alpine butterflies inhabit the alpine zone of the Daisetsuzan Mountains, the central highlands of Hokkaido.

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Nature of Bhutan

In 2011, the Bhutanitis ludlowi Expedition to Bhutan was organized by the Butterfly Society of Japan, accompanied by a documentary crew from NHK.

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Nature of Myanmar

At the time of my surveys in 1998, Myanmar was under military rule, and its fauna had been scarcely studied. As a result, numerous new species of insects were discovered.

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Nature of Mainland China

Much of the Japanese biota is believed to have migrated from mainland China during glacial periods and other geological epochs. As a result, the fauna and flora of the Chinese mainland are extraordinarily rich and diverse.

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Unauthorized reproduction of photographs is prohibited.

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