Published on June 11, 2013

Following deliberations by the ZS Editorial Board and recommendation to the Board of Directors, the Council of the Zoological Society of Japan reviewed the papers nominated for the 2013 Zoological Science Award and selected the winners as listed below. These eight papers were jointly awarded the "Fujii Award," and a cash prize of 30,000 yen will be presented for each paper.

Zoological Science Award 2013

Michio Sugahara, Yasuichiro Nishimura, and Fumio Sakamoto
Differences in heat sensitivity between Japanese honeybees and hornets under high carbon dioxide and humidity conditions inside bee balls.
29: 30-36
A paper on the bee balls formed by Japanese honeybees to repel hornets. Previous studies suggested that the elevated temperature and CO2 concentration inside the bee ball were the factors causing the hornets' death. Using four hornet species, Japanese honeybees, and European honeybees, this study analyzes the environment inside the bee balls formed by Japanese honeybees against hornets, and discusses the possibility that elevated CO2 concentration and humidity affect the heat tolerance of the hornets.

Hiroki Hata, Rieko Takahashi, Hiroshi Ashiwa, Satoshi Awata, Tomohiro Takeyama, Masanori Kohda and Michio Hori
Inheritance Patterns of Lateral Dimorphism Examined through Breeding Experiments in Tanganyikan Cichlid (Julidochromis transcriptus) and Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes)
29:49-53
This paper investigates the genetic inheritance pattern of mouth-part laterality through crossing experiments using Tanganyikan cichlids (Julidochromis transcriptus) and Japanese rice fish (Oryzias latipes), revealing that the lefty allele is dominant to the righty allele and follows simple Mendelian inheritance. Demonstrating that the trait of laterality follows a similar mode of inheritance even in phylogenetically distant species, this study is an interesting and important paper as a first step toward exploring the genetic mechanisms underlying the phenotypic polymorphism of laterality.

Kyoko Kamiya, Keiji Yamashita, Toshiharu Yanagawa, Toyoki Kawabata and Kenji Watanabe
Cypris Larvae (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha) Display Auto-Fluorescence in Nearly Species-Specific Patterns
29: 247–253
Barnacles are biofouling organisms on ship hulls and port facilities, and there has been a demand for a simple and accurate method for species identification at the cyprid stage, when swimming larvae settle on substrates. This study is part of the first author's doctoral dissertation and is a groundbreaking paper reporting that the autofluorescence patterns of cyprid larvae are useful for species discrimination. This technology has the potential to be applied not only to barnacles but also to other small animals, and future applied research is anticipated.

Kazuya Kobayashi, Takanobu Maezawa, Haruka Nakagawa and Motonori Hoshi
Existence of Two Sexual Races in the Planarian Species Switching between Asexual and Sexual Reproduction
29: 265-272
This paper brilliantly demonstrates through experiments that within the same species of planarians, there exist individuals that can only reproduce sexually and individuals that can also switch to asexual reproduction. By utilizing an original experimental system to tackle the fundamental zoological questions of the evolution and switching of sex, this approach captures the true thrill of zoology. Furthermore, future developments such as research into the molecular basis are greatly anticipated, making this work well-deserving of the paper award.

Nahid Sultana Lucky, Ryo Ihara, Kosaku Yamaoka and Michio Hori
Behavioral Laterality and Morphological Asymmetry in the Cuttlefish, Sepia lycidas
29: 286–292
This paper, which demonstrates that there is behavioral lateralization in cuttlefish shell morphology (whether prey is captured from the right or the left) and that it correlates positively with the lateralization of cuttlefish predatory behavior, is an interesting study that tackles lateralization polymorphism and its evolutionary significance in invertebrates—for which there are few research examples—from two aspects: morphology and behavior.

Makoto Urata, Sadaharu Iwasaki and Susumu Ohtsuka
Biology of the Swimming Acorn Worm Glandiceps hacksi from the Seto Inland Sea of Japan
29: 305-310
The first author has hitherto promoted comprehensive natural history science spanning a wide range of fields related to acorn worms, including phylogeny, taxonomy, development, evolution, and ecology, and has greatly contributed to advancing zoological knowledge regarding this group, which is extremely important for considering deuterostome evolution. In this study, the authors regularly collected the wingless acorn worm discovered on Kokuno Island in the Seto Inland Sea (pronounced either "Kogunoshima" or "Kokunojima") over a period of two years, and elucidated its behavior and ecology based on detailed rearing observations. It is an exceptional paper that will likely continue to be cited in textbooks in this field for generations to come.

Shohei Komaki, Atsushi Kurabayashi, Mohammed Mafizul Islam, Koji Tojo, and Masayuki Sumida
Distributional Change and Epidemic Introgression in Overlapping Areas of Japanese Pond Frog Species Over 30 Years
29: 351-358
This paper demonstrates the introgressive hybridization of three native Japanese pond frog species in central Japan and the differences in the introgressive hybridization process depending on their habitats. The authors collected a total of 233 individuals from 30 sites in the Matsumoto and Ina basins, and through allozyme and mtDNA analyses, they demonstrated the processes of hybridization, introgression, and the extinction of specific species populations in the area where the two adjacent basins meet, as well as regional differences. This is an important paper that also discusses future projections in which traditional endemic species populations have shrunk over the past 30 years due to hybridization with closely related species and will likely become extinct in the future.

Tomoe Hikosaka-Katayama, Kanae Koike, Hiroshi Yamashita, Akira Hikosaka, and Kazuhiko Koike
Mechanisms of Maternal Inheritance of Dinoflagellate Symbionts in the Acoelomorph Worm Waminoa litus
29: 559-567
This paper provides a detailed histological description of the vertical transmission process of symbiotic algae to the eggs in the acoel Waminoa litus, which symbionts with two species of dinoflagellates. By continuously culturing and maintaining acoels—taxonomically and evolutionarily fascinating organisms—this study presents valuable biological insights, especially given that the vertical transmission of symbiotic dinoflagellates is extremely exceptional in bilaterians.

That's all.

Secretariat of the Zoological Society