The banded greenhouse thrips, Hercinothrips femoralis (Reuter, 1891) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae: Panchaetothripinae), has been reported as a pest on many kinds of crops such as banana, sugar beet, eggplant, green pepper, and greenhouse ornamentals. Originally from the African continent, the species has expanded its distribution worldwide, including North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In our country it was recorded for the first time by Woo in 1973, with six females from Jeju island, but after that there was no subsequent report about occurrence and damage until present. Recently, it was rediscovered in private homes, severely damaging to ornamental plants, angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia suaveolens) and ivy (Hedera helix) in Gyeonggi-do and Jeollabuk-do. For identification and future management of this exotic pest, representative morphological characteristics and already known biological informations are provided.

Generally, in aphid groups, taxonomically deficient characters and high level of morphological plasticity induced by environmental factors make difficulties for species identification. To solve these problems, DNA barcoding has been widely used for rapid and reliable species identification in aphids. The subfamily Calaphidinae is the second largest group in the family Aphididae with about 400 species belong to 59 genera. But so far, no trial of DNA barcoding has been conducted for the subfamily Calaphidinae. In this study, a total of 446 Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences of 76 morphospecies collected in Korea and other countries were analyzed to detect cryptic diversity. In addition, 551 sequences of 74 species from the Genbank and BOLD system were compared with our new dataset. The final dataset consisted of 998 sequences of 115 species. As a results, we propose 12 cryptic species with discussion on morphological and ecological comparisons. Our results suggest that DNA barcoding is effective for precise species identification in this group and contributes to reveal hidden diversity.

채집 시기에 따른 미국선녀벌레(Metcalfa pruinosa) 월동난 발육을 다양한 항온조건에서 조사하였다. 2012년의 경우 4월 13일 이전에 채집 된 월동난은 부화에 실패하였으나, 2013년 4월 11일 채집한 개체들이 일부 온도 조건에서 성공적으로 부화하였다. 온도에 따른 월동난의 발육 조 사 결과 12.5℃와 35℃를 제외한 모든 온도 조건에서 발육이 가능하였다. 2013년 4월 26일 채집하여 가온한 결과 15℃에서 49.6일로 발육기간 이 가장 길었고 30℃에서 13.3일로 가장 짧았다. 온도가 증가함에 따라 발육기간이 짧아지는 경향을 보였으나 32.5℃에서는 30℃에서 보다 발 육기간이 길어 고온에서 발육이 지연되는 현상을 보였다. 온도와 발육율과의 관계를 설명한 선형 모형을 이용하여 추정된 미국선녀벌레의 발육 영점온도는 10.1℃, 유효적산온도는 252.5DD였다. 온도 의존적인 발육율을 설명하기 위하여 사용된 선형 및 비선형 5개 모델 중 Lactin 2 모델 이 가장 높은 해석력을 보여주었다. 월동난 개체군의 발육 완료를 설명하기 위해 사용된 Two-parameter Weibull 함수는 발육기간을 기반으로 하였을 경우 결정계수 0.92로 높은 결정력을 보였다. 개발된 발육율, 발육완료 모델들을 이용하여 추정된 50% 누적 우화일과 실측된 우화일의 차 이를 보면 Poikilotherm rate 모델을 이용하여 추정한 결과가 세 지역 편차일의 평균이 1.7일로 상대적으로 다른 모델들 보다 가장 정확하게 50% 누적 부화일을 예측할 수 있었다.

그물총채벌레아과의 중국 남부에서만 알려졌던 고들빼기총채벌레(신칭, Caliothrips tongi Mound et al.)를 한국에서 처음 보고한다. 이 종은 우리나라 전국에 걸쳐 널리 분포하고 있으며, 아시아 원산인 왕고들빼기(Lactuca indica, 국화과)가 주요 기주이고 잎에 심각한 피해를 준다.

The JpL species is one of the 31 species belonging to the Bemisia tabaci complex and is distributed in two countries, Korea and Japan. To clarify genetic relationships among different populations of the JpL species in Korea, 83 cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences generated from 83 individuals collected from eight Korean provinces were analyzed together with published 16 Korean COI sequences. A total of eight haplotypes were detected from the 99 COI sequences, and 82 COI sequences shared one haplotype, hap-2. The remaining 17 COI sequences were assigned to seven haplotypes, hap-1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The median-joining networks of the eight haplotypes revealed that the Korean JpL species has undergone genetic variations separately according to two groups, Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island. In addition, the phylogenetic trees constructed based on the 99 COI sequences and published seven Japanese COI sequences were divided into two clades: clade(A) consisted of 97 COI sequences from the Korean Peninsula group, and clade(B) consisted of 19 COI sequences from the Jeju Island and Japan groups. Our study suggests that the Korean populations of the JpL species might have spread and be undergoing genetic variations separately according to the two groups, Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island.

The mitochondrial COI gene has often been utilized as a molecular marker for species identification. However, it has sometimes caused misidentification for some pairs of closely related species. For detecting complementary barcoding loci, we first screened candidate genes by calculating genetic distances within and between species based on 542 sequences collected from the Genbank by using aphids of the Eriosomatini as an example. Of eight genes analyzed, we selected the ATP6 and ATP8 genes, which exhibited lower intraspecific and higher interspecific genetic divergences than did the COI gene. Secondly, we tested the usefulness of these genes by calculating genetic distances between all the combinations of 44 individuals of 23 eriosomatine species for each of the ATP6, ATP8, and COI genes. In the ATP8 gene, the average intraspecific divergence was lowest (0.6%) and the average interspecific divergence was highest (14.7%). The ATP8 gene evolved more rapidly than did the COI gene if genetic divergence between individuals was sufficiently large, whereas it evolved more slowly than did COI if genetic divergence was less than a threshold (1% in COI distance). As a result, species with intraspecific variation in COI and ATP6 exhibited no genetic variation in ATP8. The pattern of genetic divergence in ATP8 well accorded with the pattern of species delimitation in the present taxonomic system. Thus, we conclude that the use of the ATP8 gene in DNA barcoding could improve the accuracy of species identification in the Eriosomatini and possibly other insect groups.

Field surveys for the Bemisia tabaci complex were conducted from 2009 to 2013 in Korea, and the results were compared with published data of the B. tabaci complex. Three species, MED, MEAM1, and JpL, were collected from several provinces. The MED was mainly collected in greenhouses, displacing the earlier invasive species, MEAM1, and the JpL species was collected in the field. JpL is newly confirmed as a unique species of B. tabaci species complex in Korea and Japan.

The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, is one of the famous insect pests in the world. This species reveals several morphological variations; however, it is largely divided into two lineages, Southern (Africa, Southern Europe, Southern Asia, and Australian) and Northern (East Asia, Eurasian continent). In 2014, a large number of L. migratoria with red-brown color were suddenly occurred in the southern region (Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do) in Korea. Generally, L. migratoria collected in Korea has revealed green color, indicating that the occurrence of the red-brown L. migratoria is unprecedented. In this study, mitochondrial COI sequences of 6 red-brown and 6 green individuals of L. migratoria were analyzed to examine 1) linage of the Korean L. migratoria and 2) co-relation between color and genetic difference. The analysis results reveal that all 12 individuals are belonging to the Northern linage; however, they have genetic divergences from 0% to 0.9%, consisting of five haplotypes. In addition, the red-brown and green individuals did not show genetic differences. Our study suggests that the Korean L. migratoria has genetic divergence which do not related with color differences. Additional studies should be need to examine the origin of the Korean L. migratoria and their geographical relationships.

Field surveys for the genus Reticulitermes were conducted from 2013 to 2014 in Korea, and the results were compared with published data of the genus Reticulitermes. Totally, two species, R. speratus kyushuensis and R. kanmonensis were collected from several provinces, and R.kanmonensis is newly confirmed as an unrecorded species in Korea. The R. speratus kyushuensis was mainly collected in various trees, showing 0-2% genetic divergences; whereas, the R. kanmonensis was collected in pine woods of western regions, Gunsan, Wanju, Iksan (Jeollabuk-do), and Seocheon (Chungcheonnam-do). In the morphological comparison, R. kanmonensis is distinguished from R. speratus kyushuensis by more than 15 setae on pronotum and reveals 7.0% genetic difference (in a mitochondrial COII gene) from R. speratus kyushuensis in the molecular comparison.

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 composing the B. tabaci complex were determined based on 1,059 COI sequences of B. tabaci and 509 COI sequences of 153 hemipteran species. The genetic divergence within B. tabaci was conspicuously higher (on average, 11.1%) than interspecific genetic divergence within the respective genera of the 153 species (on average, 6.5%). This result indicates that B. tabaci is composed of multiple species that may belong to different genera or subfamilies. A 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 divergence within six species (Asia II 1, Asia II 7, Australia, Mediterranean, New World, and Sub Saharan Africa 1) was higher than 3.5%, which has been used as a threshold of species boundaries within the B. tabaci complex. These results suggest that it is necessary to increase the threshold for species boundaries up to 4% to distinguish the constituent species in the B. tabaci complex.

Using eight universal primers and new designed 315 species-specific primers, we tried to retrieve COI sequences from 45 dried specimens of 36 butterfly species collected from 1959 to 1980. The eight universal primers were entirely failed in PCR amplification and sequencing of all specimens. In the other hand, the 315 primers, targeting fragments of 71–417 bp, generated various lengths of COI sequences ranged from 444 bp to 658 bp from all specimens. Among 284 primer pairs, 26 primer pairs designed for Limenitis camilla, Argynnis niobe, and Brenthis daphne were success to produce COI sequences of congeneric speices, Limenitis doerriesi, Argynnis nerippe, and Brenthis ino. It suggests that the species-specific primers can be applied for analyzing COI sequences of closely related species. Our study reveals that newly designed species-specific primers will be effective to retrieval of COI sequences of old butterfly specimens.

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.

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.

Field surveys for the B. tabaci species complex were conducted from 2009 to 2013 in Korea, and the results were compared with published data of the B. tabaci complex. Three species, Mediterranean, Middle East-Asia Minor 1, and JpL, were determined from several regions based on mitochondrial COI sequences. The Mediterranean was mainly collected in greenhouses, displacing the earlier invasive species, Middle East-Asia Minor, and the JpL was collected in the field. The JpL is newly confirmed as a unique species of B. tabaci complex in Korea and Japan.

The family Pterophoridae (Lepidoptera), plume moths, consist of 1,136 species listed in the ‘world catalogue’ by Gielis (2003), and a few more described since then. Approximately 250 species are known in the Palaearctic Regions (Arenberger, 1995). In this study, 35 species of 21 genera have been reviewed from Korea (Matsumura 1931, 1938; Zoological Society of Korea 1968; Park 1983; Arenberger 1991; Kim et al., 2010a, 2010b, 2012a, 2012b). We suggest the problematic species, Platyptilia ignifera, is morphologically and genetically separated from congeneric species supporting the possibility as a new genus, and employ the classification system of Arenberger (1995) rather than that of Gielis (1993) using parsimony based on morphological characters.

Until now, seven species, Acosmeryx nega, Herpetogramma luctuosalis, Ostrinia furnacalis, Endoclyta excrescens, Spodoptera litura, Paranthrene regalis, and Nippoptilia vitis, have been known as lepidopteran grape pests in Korea (Woo, 1980; Lee, 1981; Kim, 1991; NIAST, 2002; Korea grape community, 2009). We discovered thirteen additional species belonging to eight families from Gwangwon and Chungbuk provinces, Korea. Additionally, we corrected the previous records of Deuterocopus albipunctatus and Nppoptilia vitis. They were identified by adult external or genitalic characters first, and also confirmed by the COI marker, compared with two public databases, NCBI and BOLD.

DNA barcode (mitochondrial COI) has been widely attempted for species identification of many animal groups including aphids. In this study, we newly found a DNA barcoding problem in a case study of the grain aphid, Sitobion avenae. Unexpectedly, five S. avenae individuals showed considerable differences of, on average, 32.6% in the DNA sequences from other conspecific individuals. BLAST search revealed that the five sequences are similar to those of aphid parasitoids such as Aphidius, Ephedrus, and Praon spp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Based on these results, we concluded that the universal primers used in aphid DNA barcodes can amplify barcode sequences from parasitoid species within host aphids.

DNA ‘barcoding’ has potential applications in insect pest monitoring and quarantine since large numbers of DNA sequences for insect species identification have been reported in recent years. However, the exact number of relevant COI sequences in public databases such as NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) is not readily available. The IMGD (Insect Mitochondrial Genome Database; http://www.imgd.org) contains 162,847 partially sequenced mitochondrial gene entries originated from 35,067 hexapod species and makes it possible to check whether DNA sequences have been previously reported or not for certain insect species. In this study, we applied the IMGD to establish baseline data for the forest pest insects in Korea, before constructing a DNA barcode system. Retrieving data from the IMGD, we recognized that DNA sequences were already available for 73 of 259 species known as forest pest insects in Korea. Most of the 73 species with DNA sequences are common pests worldwide but there maining 186 species are endemic to the Eastern Palearctic region. Based on these data, we are proceeding to construct a Korean Forest Insect Pest DNA barcode database.

Systematic studies within the family Pterophoridae have been determined by external morpholgical characteristics (Yano 1963, Spuler 1910, Meyrick 1910). However, it is sometimes to be the result of species misplacement by the variation, depending on geographic isolation and genetic drift (Moran, 1986; Shufran et al., 2000; Anstead et al., 2002; Margaritopoulos et al., 2006). The genus Platyptilia Hübner [1925] is one of the largest genera of the family comprising more than 100 species according to the World’s Catalog by Gielis (2003) mainly distributed from Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions. Within the genus, Platyptilia ignifera has been suspected as very differentiated from other congeneric species in the morphological characters. In this study, to ascertain a placement of the species, we performed molecular analysis with one mitochondrial gene, COI and one nuclear gene, 28S, and morphometric analysis based on six ratios characters using principal components analysis (PCA). The sequences of the two genes, COI, 28S, implied that Platyptilia ignifera separated from Platyptilia spp. In addition, P. ignifera exhibited morphological characteristics distinct from other congeneric species. Based on these results, we propose that Neoplatyptilia gen. nov., for Platyptilia ignifera.

A total of six species in the subgenus Uroleucon (Uromelan) is revised from the Korean Peninsula. Uroleucon adenophora (Matsumura, 1918) is recognized for the first time in Korea, collected on the young upper stem of Adenophora sp. (Campanulaceae). It is described, illustrated, and measured for apterous viviparous females.