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Ecological Information Lab
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A lab that studies spider mites and their natural enemies to develop pest control that does not rely on pesticides alone.
AboutAbout the lab
Learning how insects live and putting it to use in pest control.
The Ecological Information Lab aims to understand how living things live in nature and to apply that understanding to people's lives.
As a lab in the Graduate School of Agriculture, it studies insects, and the main way it can benefit people is through the control of agricultural pests.
Using small pests such as spider mites and their natural enemies, such as phytoseiid mites and predatory bugs, as its main study subjects, the lab conducts both basic and applied research.
Undergraduates are assigned to the Advanced Bioscience Course in their third year, and to this lab within the course in their fourth year (graduate school: Graduate School of Agriculture, Division of Environmental Science and Technology).
Key terms
- Natural enemy
- An organism that reduces pest numbers by eating or parasitizing them
- IPM
- Integrated pest management. An approach that suppresses pests by combining various methods, such as natural enemies, rather than relying on pesticides alone
- Pesticide resistance
- When pests become tolerant of a pesticide and it no longer works
NewsLab news
A doctoral student received a Poster Award at the 17th International Congress of Acarology (ICA2026)
Published a paper showing that a herbivore that is a weak competitor avoids traces left by a stronger competitor
ResearchResearch themes
To manage agricultural pests sustainably, it is necessary to understand the relationships among plants, herbivores, and natural enemies, as well as the environmental factors that act on them. Using pests such as spider mites and their natural enemies, the lab conducts broad research, from behavior to genetics and from DNA to the field.
*Illustrative imageUnderstanding natural enemies to use them in pest control
To develop pest control that does not rely on chemical pesticides alone, the lab studies the movement, food, and preferences of natural enemies such as phytoseiid mites and minute pirate bugs, including with DNA markers, and connects the findings to integrated pest management (IPM) techniques.
*Illustrative imageSpider mites escaping their natural enemies
The predator-prey relationship between pests and their natural enemies has evolved through an arms race between the two. The lab clarifies how this works and applies the findings to techniques that use phytoseiid mites to suppress spider mite numbers effectively.
*Illustrative imageHow pesticides stop working
Spider mites develop resistance one after another, even to new acaricides. Based on genome data, the lab clarifies the mechanisms of pesticide resistance and also studies how resistance genes spread.
*Illustrative imageSurviving ultraviolet light and high temperatures
The lab clarifies how spider mites and phytoseiid mites adapt to environmental conditions such as ultraviolet light and temperature, and considers the significance of these adaptations. It is also examining a new spider mite control technique that uses ultraviolet B (UVB).
MembersFaculty
The members of the Ecological Information Lab consist of faculty, administrative staff, project researchers, international research fellows, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorNorihide Hinomoto
- Assistant ProfessorShuichi Yano
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Colony of Red spider mites (Tetranychus urticae)” Aleksey Gnilenkov from Moscow, Russia / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Understanding natural enemies to use them in pest control: “Proprioseiopsis mexicanus 3” Dr. Monica Farfan / CC0 (cropped)
- Spider mites escaping their natural enemies: “Orius insidiosus P1260799a” xpda / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How pesticides stop working: “Spider mites on a pepino leaf” Toby Young / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Surviving ultraviolet light and high temperatures: “Uv lamp” Coleopter / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Insect Ecology Lab): “CSIRO ScienceImage 2289 A mature queen termite edit2” Forestry and Forest Products, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Pathology Lab): “Septoria-tritici” Maccheek / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Weed Science Lab): “Farmers of forty centuries - Smoothing the soil and pulling weeds after the first working of a field of transplanted rice” Unknown photographer / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Genetics Lab): “GBIF” Andre Hosper / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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