The genus of Stomaphis (Aphididae: Lachninae) is stem or root feeding aphid on trees and can easily be distinguished in having the very long rostrum which extends beyond the length of body. Most of species are monoecious holocyclic without host alternation and attended by ants. Stomaphis sinisalicis Zhang & Zhong, 1982 (Aphididae: Lachninae) is recognized for the first time in Korea, on Salix babylonica L., S. koreensis Anderss. and S. hulteni Floderus (Salicaceae).

Black fungus gnats play an important role as the decomposers in the forest ecosystem. Their larvae live on various organic matters, and the subfamily Sciarinae, in particular, have restricted habitats that feed on dead woods in the deep forest. We compared the biodiversity of family Sciaridae from two different habitats, the clear-cutting area (CA) and the pitch pine forest (PF) by the emergence traps (ET) and the pitfall traps (PT) from May to October, 2010. A total of 12 species were reliably identified to the species among 19 unique taxa belonging to 9 genera 4 subfamilies from 716 collected black fungus gnats. Taxonomic studies show that Corynoptera bicuspidata (Lengersdorf, 1926) (200 individuals, 27.9 % of total) and Cory. sinedens Hippa, Vilkamaa & Heller, 2010 (74 individuals, 10.3 % of total) dominate in the PF and the CA, respectively. Species richness and abundance of CA is lower than those of PF. Any species of subfamily Sciarinae were not collected in the CA. These findings indicate that the biodiversity of Sciaridae was influenced by forest management such as clear cutting, which leads to the changes of canopy cover, dead woods and leaf litter layer.

The mitochondrial COI gene has proven successful for identifying the lepidopteran species. In addition, this gene has been applied to recognize cryptic species and confirm a polyphagous species as one species. However, it has been also reported misidentification in the COI gene. As a result, some researchers have suggested the use of additional genes in species identification, especially, nuclear genes. In this study, we observed that a nuclear EF1agene is better than the mitochondrial COI gene in recognizing Stathmopoda species. For example, among the all species, 47 individuals of nine species, a large intraspecific pairwise difference were detected, up to 15.0% in universal barcoding regions of the COI gene, 22.0% in other part of the COI gene; however, 2.0% in EF1a. In contrast, Stathmopoda sp2 and S. commoda were separated into several clusters in each different COI regions, and some individuals of S. auriferella and S. commoda, were closer to each other separating from the cluster of the same species. But, we get clear results from the EF1a, Stathmopoda species well clustered and could be distinguished.

The genus of Stomaphis (Aphididae: Lachninae) is stem or root feeding aphid on trees and can be easily distinguished in having the very long rostrum which extends beyond the length of body. Most of species are monoecious holocyclic without host alternation and attended by ants. Based on body appearance and COI gene sequence, we report a Stomaphis betulidahuricae Zhang and Qio, 1999 (Aphididae: Lachninae) for the first time in Korea, on Carpinus cordata Bl., C. laxiflora Bl., and Acer palmatum Thunb.

On Birches (Betula spp.), more than seventy species of aphids in eighteen genera are recorded worldwide, mostly (> 60%) belonging to ten genera of the subfamily Calaphidinae (Hemiptera: Aphididae). In Korea, only seven Birch feeding aphids are recorded. Recently, we recognized two calaphinid species, Calaphis betulaecolens (Fitch, 1851) and Euceraphis betulae (Koch, 1855) as new to the Korean peninsula.

The genus Psallus Fieber, 1858 (Phylini) is the largest group, with twenty six described species in Korea (Duwal et al., 2012). Due to recent collection in 2013, three new species are recognized from Korea. All these species are described, with images of dorsal habitus and genital structures. A checklist of the East Asian species and geographic distribution of Psallus is revised.

Lepidopteran hitchhikers were investigated in vessel at five major ports of Korea in 2013. These moths were collected by International Plant-Quarantine Accreditation Board (IPAB) during inspection on vessels for Asian Gypsy Moth (AGM). The results typically include the taxonomic identification, their origin localities, and information related to commodities and ship’s route. A total of 1,026 individuals were detected in vessels and identified with 236 species belonging to 21 families. Although most of the species are already known to the Korean fauna, the following three species are unknown: Lymantria xylina Swinhoe (Lymantriidae), Glyphodes actorionalis Walker (Crambidae), and Histia flabellicornis nigrinus Jordan (Zygaenidae). Interestingly, H. flabellicornis nigrinus Jordan was detected for two consecutive years. Although this species is not an important pest, it will be need to necessarily continual monitoring. L. xylina Swinhoe which is a great potential forest pest, was detected four times (16 specimens) at Busan port of entry. Therefore, it is necessary to provide comprehensive border surveillance monitoring and a valuable historical record of the array of lepidopteran hitchhikers transported to the Korea through inanimate pathway, in order to counter further potential importance of hitchhikers on international vessels at Korea.

Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important insect pests in the world. In the present study, the taxonomic status of B. tabaci and the number of species consisting of the B. tabaci complex were determined based on 1059 COI sequences of B. tabaci and 509 COI sequences of 153 hemipteran species. The genetic divergence within B. tabaci was conspicuously higher (onaverage,11.1%) than interspecific genetic divergence within the respective genera of the 153 hemipteran species (on average, 6.5%). This result indicates that B. tabaci is composed of multiple biological species that may belong to different genera or subfamilies. The phylogenetic tree constructed based on 212 COI sequences without duplications revealed that the B. tabaci complex is composed of a total of 31 putative species, including a new species, JpL. However, genetic divergences within five species, Asia III, Asia II 7, Mediterranean, New world, and Sub Saharan Africa 1, were higher than 3.5%, which has previously been used as a threshold of genetic boundary in distinguishing species of the B. tabaci complex. These results suggest the necessity to redefine the threshold for species boundaries to best distinguish the constituent species in the B.tabaci complex.

A genus Schoutedenia (Hemiptera: Greenideinae) is an ancient group of Gondwanaian distribution occurring on the plant family Euphorbiaceae. In this study, we newly report Schoutedenia sp. nov., collected from Phyllanthus sp. (Euphorbiaceae) from Cambodia. Review for three species including Schoutedenia sp. nov., with identification key are presented.

Laos, a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, has most extensive network of ecosystems in the Indochina Peninsula, surrounded by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west. It is the tropical vegetation and warm climatic conditions influenced by monsoon. Such geographical and climatic condition is favorable for the diversity of insects. However, research or educative investigation on insects have been poorly conducted. Through recent expedition during dry season (between December 2012 and February 2013), mainly held at Phou Khao Khouay National Park (PKKNP), which varies from sheer sandstone cliffs and pristine river gorges to rough mountain slopes along the Mekong river, we recognized atotal of 88 lepidopteran insects belonging to 22 families, Arctidae, Attevidae, Choreutidae, Cossidae, Crambidae, Geometridae, Gracillariidae, Hesperidae, Hyblaeidae, Limacodidae, Lycaenidae, Lymantridae, Noctuidae, Nymphalidae, Oecophoridae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Pyralidae, Scythrididae, Sphingidae, Uraniidae and Zygaenidae, were recognized.

fossil species. It consists of four genera, Caenosclerogibba Yasumatsu, Probethylus Ashmead, Sclerogibba Riggio & De Stefani-Perez and Pterosclerogibba Olmi. Thirteen species of two genera (60% of species worldwide) are known from the Oriental region. However, no species was reported in Cambodia so far. Even though the detailed biology of the sclerogibbids is poorly known, they are ectoparasitoids of the webspinners (Embiidina). From the present study, three species of the family are recognized for the first time from Cambodia: Sclerogibba talpiformis Benoit, S. rapax Olmi and S. impressa Olmi. Diagnoses and photographs for each species are presented.

In a faunistic survey for the family Coleophoridae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea) on Is. Yeonpyeong and Is. Baengnyeong in 2010 and 2006, respectively, eleven species of Coleophora were recognized. Among them, three species; Coleophora adjunctella Hodgkinson, C. chenopodii Oku, and C. kurokoi Oku are reported for the first time from Korea. For the newly recorded species, taxonomical remarks and illustration of adults and genitalia are given.

The aphid genus Micromyzodium David, 1958 is newly recognized in the Korean peninsula. This genus is characterized by very long dorsal abdominal hairs, almost 3-4 times as long as basal diameter of antennal segment III. Colonies of two Micromyzodium species; Micromyzodium kuwakuse Uye 1924 and Micromyzodium nipponicum Moritsu 1949 were collected on Fatoua villosa Nakai (Urticales: Moraceae) and Perilla frutescens Britton (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), respectively. In this study, we redescribed, illustrated, and measured for apterous viviparous females of the two species.

The exotic aphid pest, pomegranate aphid, Aphis punicae Parsserini, 1863 (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is newly recognized in the Korean peninsula. This species is originally distributed throughout the Mediterranean regions, the Middle East, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey. In the major producers of pomegranate such as India and the Mediterranean regions, this species is regarded as one of the most serious insect pests inflicting injury on pomegranate, Punica granatum Linnaeus. By sucking plant sap and excreting honeydew, aphids cause various plant diseases and virus infections which are more likely to occur as population size increases. Aphis punicae infests together commonly with Aphis gosspii Glover, and rarely with Aphis craccivora Koch and Aphis spiraecola Patch on P. granatum in Korea. In this study, we first compared two closely related species, A. gossypii and A. punicae, based on morphometric analysis to confirm their morphological relationships. Second molecular identification using mitochondrial COI barcode region was performed for the aphid samples collected from P. granatum.

Two families of checkered beetles (Cleridae and Thanerocleridae) contain approximately 3,600 described species. Clerus is one of genera belonging to the Omadius genus-group (Cleridae: Clerinae: Clerus series), and distributed in Palaearctic, Indo-Australian and Afrotropic regions containing 17 species. Among the known species, 11 species have been recorded from Palaearctic region (seven from East Asian countries). Through a taxonomic study on the Korean Clerus species, a total of three species, C. dealbatus (Kraatz, 1879), C. pilosellus (Gorham, 1878) and Clerus sp. nov. are recognized. From the present study, it was confirmed that C. dealbatus was misidentified as Thanasimus lewisi (Jacobson, 1911) in the country, due to the similarity of the body coloration. The presence of the latter species in Korean insect fauna is very doubtful. Diagnostic characters of three Korean Clerus species are presented.

Oecophoridae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea), the concealer moths, is worldwide in distribution and comprises more than 4,000 described, particularly in Australia with over 3,000 endemic species. To date, the phylogenetic relationships of Oecophoridae have been poorly known, except a few works on the higher-level phylogeny of the superfamily Gelechioidea which includes some species of Oecophoridae. This study is the first comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of Oecophoridae, based on 4,395 base pairs of mitochondrial protein coding gene (COI), nuclear ribosomal RNA genes (18S and 28S) and nuclear protein coding genes (IDH, MDH, Rps5, EF1a and wingless) for 82 taxa. Data were analysed using maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic frameworks. The results are shown that the family Oecophoridae is not monophyletic, as the genus Casmara is closely clustered with Stathmopodidae far from the Oecophorid lineage and the genera Tyrolimnas and Phaeosaces are closely clustered with Depressariinae in the Elachistid lineage. Main clade of Oecophoridae comprises Xyloryctinae previously assigned to Xyloryctidae, closely claded with New Zealandian Oecophorids including the genera Hierodoris, Gymnobatra and Izatha; the problematic position group, Acryptolechia spp., Deuterogoniinae and Oecophorinae.

In terms of aphid species identification, both host plant association and morphological characteristics are crucial factors. However, aphids in the genus Aphis Linnaeus (Hemiptera: Aphididae) often are cryptic in morphology due to their rapid radiation. Moreover, overlapping host plant species can make difficult situation worse. Three cryptic species Aphis gossypii Glover, Aphis glycines Matsumura, and Aphis rhamnicola sp. nov. occur together on the Buckthorn, Rhamnus spp. in the overwintering season in Korea. Due to lacking informative morphological characters and host plant sharing, the new species recently has been recognized as a distinct species. In this study, A. rhamnicola sp. nov. on various host plants was compared with the primary host sharing species, A. gossypii and A. glycines, based on morphological and molecular characteristics. In the results, there were significant genetic differences between three species, despite the high similarities in morphology. Our results provide strong evidence for establishing new species, which seems to be a typical heteroecious species that alternates between only primary host, Rhamnus spp., and various secondary hosts. We describe a new species, A. rhamnicola sp. nov., for apterous and alate vivipara, fundatrix, ovipara, and gynopara, including diagnostic key for host sharing species in genus Aphis.

Six unknown hitchhiking moths intercepted at the Korean port of entry were detected from an international vessel by the personnels of the International Plant-Quarantine Accreditation Board (IPAB) in 2012. Among them, there was a noctuid moth, Noctua pronuba (Linnaeus), which is a quarantine pest in Korea. Other five species are three erebids (Lophocampa maculata Harris, Lemyrarhodo philodes (Hampson), and Trigonodes cephise (Cramer)), one sphingid (Hippotion rosetta Swinhoe), and one zygaenid (Histia flabellicornis nigrinus Jordan). They are mostly distributed in the subtropical regions. In addition to these hitchhiking moths from the vessel, other interception records from inanimate pathways are provided here on the bases of Pest Information System, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (QIA). Thus, it is necessary to monitor inanimate pathways and to adopt comprehensive border surveillance system, in order to protect further invasions of alien insect species.

The synanthropic flies are regarded as the most important vectors of infectious diseases. Especially, feeding and reproductive habits make flies the important vectors of many pathogens such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, typhoid fever, dysentery, and anthrax. Although most of lower flies (e.g. black-flies, mosquitos, sand-flies) transport diseases by bloodsucking, the mechanical dislodgment from exoskeleton is one of the important mechanisms of pathogens transmission for higher flies (Diptera: Brachycera) such as blow-flies, flesh-flies, and house-flies. According to recent phylogenetic studies, the Bibionomorpha is suggested as a sister taxon of the Brachycera as a monophyletic group “Neodiptera”. Coincidently, a part of black fungus gnats (Diptera: Bibionomorpha: Sciaridae) are known as the important vectors of fungal diseases on agricultural crops due to the spores carrying by there fore tibial structures. We propose that the correlation of spore carrying structures and habitats adaptation in the Sciaridae. The evolutionary pathway tests support that the fore tibia structures appeared first and followed by live plant habitats in the Sciaridae. Regarding analyses, we hypothesized that the evolutionary benefit of fungal carrying structures could be closely related with the larval habitats adaptation of Sciaridae. Interestingly, both adults of the synanthropic higher flies and the black fungus gnats are carrying various microorganisms by mechanical dislodgment from there tibial exoskeleton. The common habits of those flies could be providing clues about the evolution of the fly-microorganism interections.

Traumatic insemination (TI), an extraordinary copulation strategy, is most prevalent in cimicoid true bugs (Insecta: Hemiptera) among invertebrates including insects. Here, we resolved the evolutionary history of TI and the females’ adaptations by conducting molecular phylogenetic analyses and comparative studies based on the phylgenetic relationships. We found a sister group relationship of Curaliidae + Lasiochilidae, which are the only groups among Cimicoidea not likely engaged in TI. Divergence time estimates revealed that TI is a behavior of antiquity that first evolved in the Early Jurassic 188Mya (95% highest posterior density = 157 – 221). Furthermore, ancestral character state reconstructions indicated that TI evolved only once from standard insemination in Cimicoidea. The results revealed that only TI is correlated with PS among the biological traits, and that evolutionary acquisition of PS was driven by selection of TI. Additionally, we found that not only are the three types of PS homoplastic to each other, but also that each of types could not be a homologous feature despite of same terminology, which suggests convergent evolution of the females’ morphology have occurred as females were adapting to TI.