Jujube trees, herbal medicine material, produce not only their fruit but also jujube honey for bee and human’ food sources. Although jujube is an important honey plant after acacia bloom, the research was done with 15-year-old jujube trees grown in ChungDo-Gun, which there was no information on jujube floral nectar. According to the research, jujube nectar secretion mostly happens during dawn and morning for two days. The average number of inflorescence per tree is 638.1 according to the research. And also, the average number of flowers per inflorescence is 64.4. The amount of nectar secretion is 11.6 ul on average per flower, and hypothesized nectar secretion from 15-year-old tree per tree is 476.682 ul. Also,a jujube tree has 545.5ul hypothesized nectar secretion per ha by the research.

Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua are difficult to control using chemical insecticides because of the development of insecticide resistance. For eco-friendly beet armyworm managements, various control agents are required. Entomopathogenic fungus is one of promise control agents as an alternative to chemical control agent. We isolated entomopathogenic fungi from soil samples of suwon by insect-bait method using Galleria mellonella and conducted bioassay to larva of beet armyworm. As a result of bioassay isolate FG274, FG340, FG344 had high virulence as 100% against second instar larva of S. exigua. To identify the fungus isolates, their’s morphological characteristic was observed and ITS of 18srRNA was sequenced. ITS sequence of FT274, 340, 344 were highly matched (100%) to that of Beauveria bassiana, Paecilomyces fumosoroseus, Metarhizium anisopliae. To investigate the optimal concentration, three isolates were sprayed at three different concentration(1×106 ,107 and 108 conidia/㎖) in laboratory conditions. 나타내었다.

Use of conidia or spores of entomopathogenic fungi are influenced by environmental conditions such as temperature and relative humidity and caused slow and fluctuation of mortality. In addition, although the fungi have the advantage of a restricted host range, this specificity is one of the limiting factors for their use. These factors are preventing wider application and use of these biocontrol agents. To mitigate such problems we selected an Beauveria bassiana Bb08 which kill green peach aphid with its liquid culture filtrate. In this study we conducted bioassay with the fungal culture filtrate and culture fluid to greenhouse pests such as cotton aphid, whitefly and thrips. Culture fluid showed high mortality against green peach aphid, as well as cotton aphid, sweet potato whitefly, and western flower thrips. However, control effect of culture filtrate varied with pests. Culture filtrate showed high mortality to cotton aphid. Mortality of western flower thrips with culture filtrate was slower than culture fluid including spores and sweet potato whitefly was much lower. These results indicated that the culture fluid of Beauveria bassiana Bb08 has potential to simultaneously control various greenhouse pests.

In recent, habitat fragmentation is one of the major factors to threat to biodiversity loss, because habitat fragmentation caused by urbanization and land-use change affect reducing of habitat amount and changing of environmental condition. In particular, increasing of forest edges by habitat fragmentation cause changing of microclimate and distribution of organisms in forest. This study was conducted to examine the distributional patterns of ground beetle assemblages along forestedge- crop gradients in Hoengseong-gun, Gangwon-do. We selected 8 study sites as line gradients from forest interior to crop (+80m, +40m, +20m, 0m, -20m, -40m, -80m). Ground beetles were collected by pitfall traps from May to October in 2012. A total of 61 species were identified from 3,739 collected beetles. Species richness was the highest at forest edge (GLM with Tukey’s test, F6, 49=2.56, P=0.031). Although abundance was higher at both forest interior and edge, but not showed statistical significance (F6, 49=2.06, P=0.076). Species composition of forest interiors were significantly different from forest exteriors (crops) by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and cluster analysis with similarity profile test (SIMPROF), while forest edges showed intermediate characteristics. Although our study sites may not represent the overall Korean forest, we confirmed that forest edges are important habitats for generalists and open-habitat species as well as forest specialists. In conclusion, management of both forest edge and its surroundings are needed to conserve biodiversity in forest,

Environmental changes such as land-use change including reclamation cause effects on the ecosystem seriously. Present study investigated community structure of hemipterans in several reclaimed lands from western coast of South Korea in 2010, because among arthropods, hemipterans are more influenced by land-use change which caused the change of dominant plants. Six reclaimed lands were selected for our study based on the ages of reclaimed land (0, 5, 12, 16, 20, and 31 years). Dominant plant species of reclaimed lands were belonging to Poaceae, Phragmites communis and Oryza sativa in Yeongsangan II, Sabkyocheon, Geumgan I and Gyehwado, Secale cereale in Seokmun, and Imperata cylindrica and Calamagrostis epigeios in Sihwa. A total of 31 species in 10 families were identified from 4475 collected hemipterans. In Sihwa, Shannon’s diversity was very low compared to other 5 reclaimed lands due to dominance of Paromius exiguus. Because I. cylindrica and C. epigeios were 1st and 2nd host plants of P. exiguus (2824 individuals only collected from Sihwa). In multivariate analysis, 6 reclaimed lands grouped into 2 major groups showing 49.8% in Bray-Curtis similarity between 2 groups. From these results, land-use change such as reclamation project may cause the outbreak of insect pests by destruction of ecosystem functions and simplification of plant community, although community structure of hemipterans may be stable over age of land reclamation.

To investigate genes differentially expressed in the venom of social and solitary wasps, a comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted. Subtractive expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries specific to the venom gland and sac (gland/sac) of a social wasp species, Vespa tropica and a solitary hunting wasp species, Rhynchium brunneum, was constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization. In BLASTx analysis, 41% and 56% of the total ESTs showed statistically best-matched hits (E ≤ 10-4) in the libraries of V. tropica and R. brunneum, respectively. Although the functional category analysis did not show remarkable differences in the distribution of functional categories between the two venom gland/sac cDNA libraries, perhaps due to the lack of functional information on many of the venom components, there were groups of genes that are specific to either V. tropica or R. brunneum. Venom allergen 5 and serine protease were found to be social wasp-specific venom transcripts. In contrast, venom peptides, metalloendopeptidases, arginine kinase and dendrotoxin were observed in solitary wasp at much higher frequencies.

Hot water soluble extract was prepared from Hericium erinaceus and its neuritogenic activity on PC12h cells was analyzed, which is a clone originating from a rat pheochromocytomon. The moisture content of freeze dried hot water extract was 12.08%. The extract was mainly composed of carbohydrate (51.24%) followed by crude protein (24.04%), crude fat (0.26%), dietary fiber (5.09), and ash (12.18%). Fatty acids, glucan and inorganic constituents were found as minor components. The neuritogenic activity of hot water extract was evaluated under microscopic observation of neurite outgrowth in PC12h cells and by measuring the neurite length of induvidual cell. The extract exhibited strong effect of neurite outgrowth in a dose-dependent manner from 0.01 mg/mL to 1 mg/mL, in which longer neurite outgrowth was observed as the treatment dose increased.

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of in vitro maturation (IVM) medium, cytochalasin B (CB) treatment during intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and electric activation on in vitro development ICSI-derived embryos in pigs. Immature pig oocytes were matured in vitro in medium 199 (M199) or porcine zygote medium (PZM)-3 that were supplemented with porcine follicular fluid, cysteine, pyruvate, EGF, insulin, and hormones for the first 22 h and then further cultured in hormone-free medium for an additional 21～22 h. ICSI embryos were produced by injecting single sperm directly into the cytoplasm of IVM oocytes. The oocytes matured in PZM-3 with 61.6 mM NaCl (low-NaCl PZM-3) tended to decrease (0.05<P<0.1) nuclear maturation when compared with oocytes matured in M199 (76.9% vs. 83.8%) but no significant differences were found in embryo cleavage, blastocyst formation, and mean number of cells in blastocyst (73.8% vs. 74.6%, 11.1% vs. 12.1%, and 28.4 cells vs. 30.1 cells, respectively). The oocyte degeneration was not reduced by CB treatment during ICSI (11.9%) when compared with no treatment control (11.3%) while the treatment showed detrimental effects (P<0.05) on embryonic cleavage (40.0%) and blastocyst formation (1.8%) rates when compared with control (60.0% and 11.5%, respectively). For activation of ICSI oocytes, additional electric stimulus has no positive or negative effect on in vitro development of preimplantation stage ICSI porcine embryos. Our results demonstrate that CB treatment during ICSI inhibits embryonic development of ICSI oocytes and additional electric activation after ICSI has no effect in improving ICSI embryonic development in pigs. Further studies are needed to improve ICSI efficiency by investigating factors influencing embryonic development after ICSI in pigs.

The body and head lice (Pediculus humanus humanus and Pediculus humanus capitis, respectively) are hematophagous ectoparasites of humans and only the body louse between two is known to transmit three bacterial diseases through its feces. The proliferation profiles of Bartonella quintana, the causative agent of trench fever, inside the louse body and its excretion patterns were investigated in the two louse subspecies following oral challenge with B. quintana-infected blood meal. The initial density of B. quintana was sustained inside head lice without any noticeable proliferation for the entire period after infection. In contrast, B. quintana proliferated rapidly inside body lice and the maximum density reached at 10 days post-infection. The numbers of bacteria detected in feces from infected lice were almost the same and steadily decreased over time in both body and head lice. Nevertheless, the viability of the bacteria, as determined by fluorescence, was significantly higher in body louse feces, especially at 1 day post-infection and this tendency lasted for 11 days. These findings suggest that excretion of feces containing more viable B. quintana that is proliferated inside body lice following ingestion of infected blood meal is responsible for the higher vector competence of body lice.

Methyl bromide (MB) has been banned by Montreal Protocol due to ozone depletion in developed countries since 2005 but uses for quarantine & pre-shipment (QPS) remains exemption. Current MB alternatives such as phosphine gas, ethyl formate has been showing their potential in terms of their no phytotoxic damages to target perishable commodities post fumigation as well as their efficacy at low temperature. We evaluated phosphine (PH3) gas as MB alternatives welsh onion, carrot, and lettuce fumigation. on sensitivity test, larvae of Aphis gossypii were most tolerant to PH3 among the all stage of A. gossypii, Tetranychus urticae and Plutella xylostella. The LC99 and LCT99 value of mixture gas for adult of A. gossypii was 1.79 mg/L (24hr, 5℃) and 33.56 mg h/L(5℃), respectively. On confirmation trials scheduled in 28m3 container for 24hr at 5℃, all stages of T. urticae was completely controlled in 2g/㎥ of phosphine gas, but A. gossypii and M. persicae were not completely controled. No phytotoxic damage was observed in vegetables.

In apple orchards under different farming practices (organic and conventional), arthropod community structure was investigated. Arthropods were collected with pitfall traps, band traps, yellow sticky traps and pheromone traps from May to December, 2012 in Danyang-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea. Biodiversity was analyzed with species richness and Shannon diversity index (H΄). Sampled arthropods were identified 37 families in 14 orders from 21,618 individuals in organic orchard-1 and 33 families in 10 orders from 11,318 individuals in organic orchard-2 and 35 families in 13 orders from 27,711 individuals in conventional orchard. Species richness was relatively highest in organic orchard-1, intermediate in conventional orchard and lowest in organic orchard-2. In ecologically functional group, abundance of pests was higher in conventional orchard than in organic orchards due to the high occurrence of Phyllonorycte ringoniella (Gracillariidae) and Lyonetia prunifoliella (Lyonetiidae). Organic orchards showed higher abundance, species richness and species diversity of epigeic predators and those of parasitoids above ground than conventional orchard. Abundance of detritivores, mainly collembola, were higher in organic orchard than in conventional orchard.

Bemisia tabaci, sweetpotato whitefly, has been recognized one of the most destructive insect pests worldwide because of increased resistance to some insecticide groups requiring alternative strategies for its control. We conducted a study of the influence of relative humidity, temperature and different developmental stages on the susceptibility of sweetpotato whitefly to conidia of Isaria javanica isolate, which had been reported high virulence against Q biotype of B. tabaci. The mortality of tobacco whitefly was low at low constant relative humidities, but was high when kept high humidity for first 24 hours and transferred to low humidity. The Isaria isolate had wide range of temperature (15℃ to 35℃) to control sweetpotato whitefly. The isolate has virulence to the egg and all developmental stages of nymph of B. tabaci. These results indicated that the isolate had good control effects at various environmental conditions and is an excellent candidate to develop a microbial pesticide to control sweetpotato whitefly.

Sweetpotato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), especially Q biotype, has been recognized one of the most destructive insect pests worldwide because of increased resistance to some insecticide groups requiring alternative strategies for its control. We studied the conidia production of entomopathogenic fungus Isaria javanica Pf04, which had been reported high virulence isolate against Q biotype of B. tabaci, using grain. Brown rice was most suitable for conidia mass production of the isolate of I. javanica. Conidia was produced high at 25 ~ 27.5℃. The isolate produced more spores when conidia suspension directly inoculated onto media than two-phase fermentation. When concentration of inoculum was high spore production was high, but increasing rate of conidia production was highest at low inoculum concentration (1×105 conidia/ml) as 6,700 times increase compared with 20 times increase at high inoculum concentration (1×108 conidia/ml). These results indicated that the isolate can produce more conidia with cheap agricultural product and can develop as a microbial pesticide to control sweetpotato whitefly.

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover), is one of the most serious pests in various vegetable crops. In Korea, some field populations of A. gossypii especially in greenhouse showed high resistance against neonicotinoids. The imidaclopridresistant strain (IR) selected from one of the greenhouse strains was found to be about 3,800 folds more resistant to imidacloprid, compared to the susceptible strain (S), as judged by LC50 values. To identify differentially expressed genes in IR, an isogenic strain, reverse susceptible strain (IRS) was generated from IR and comparative transcriptome analyses based on GS-FLX were conducted using total RNAs extracted from both IR and IRS. Also we confirmed protein expression patterns by 2DE and detoxification enzyme over-expression by synergist test. However there was no significant variation among IR, IRS and S. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of seven nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunit (alpha 1-5,7 and beta 1) genes from S and IR strain revealed a point mutation causing an arginine to threonine substitution (R81T) in the loop D region of the nAChR beta 1 subunit of the IR. These mechanisms were also reported in M. persicae and this amino acid change confers a vertebrate-like character to the insect nAChR and results in reduced sensitivity to neonicotinoids. Moreover an extra point mutation, L80S (leucine to serine substitution) was also detected nearby R81T mutation in nAChR beta 1 subunit variant. These mutations can be an additive factor in imidacloprid resistance in A. gossypii. This is the first report of imidacloprid resistance mechanism in A.gossypii. Further, this would be helpful in managing A. gossypii resistant populations in field.

Emergence of resistant two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) can induce the over usage of standard amount of acaricides and result in various side effects. Rapid resistance monitoring is essential step for the efficient management of resistant populations by enabling the selection of appropriate acaricides. Here, we evaluated the 10 acaricides to determine its suitability on residual contact vial bioassay (RCV) by using PyriF strain as standard. Five acaricides (Abamectin, monocrotophos, tebufenpyrad, bifenazate and cyflumetofen) revealed the dose-dependent mortality within 8 h, whereas other remaining acaricides (Fenbutatin oxide, fenpyroxymate, flufenoxuron, spiromesifen and etoxazole) did not. This finding suggests that the application of RCV method is limited depending on the mode of action and physicochemical properties of each acaricide. Resistance levels to five acaricides (Abamectin, monocrotophos, tebufenpyrad, bifenazate and cyflumetofen) were determined for four field populations of TSSM by using RCV diagnostic kit. All TSSM populations showed the highest sensitivity to cyflumetofen, indicating that it would be most effective in controling field populations. RCV diagnostic kit would enable to provide crucial information for choosing the most appropriate acaricides in the field.

The physiology of parasitic wasp control of their lepidopteran hosts' not only includes injecting their egg but also various factors such as symbiotic virus. This study was focused on the investigation of sophisticated interaction between parasitoid (Diadegma fenestrale) and their host (Plutella xylostella) in P. xylostella larva at transcriptome level, to check whether it is parasitized or not. Short-read deep sequencing method (Hiseq2000) was used for the transcriptome analysis. De novo assembly of cDNA sequence data generated 196,081 contigs between 201bp and 15,853bp in length. Some detoxification enzymes such as cytochrome P450 and Immune-related genes such as antimicrobial peptides were up-regulated after parasitism. Expression of symbiotic ichnovirus genes was detected in parasitized larvae with 55 contigs identified from five ichnovirus gene families including vankyrin, viral innexin, repeat elements, a cysteine-rich motif, and polar residue rich protein. This investigation provides a detailed information on differential expression of P. xylostella larval genes and symbiotic ichnovirus genes following parasitization.