Western grape rootworm, Bromius obscurus is a well-known pest of grape vines in Europe although it was originated from America. Although this species was originally described in America, its distribution became pandemic and are known to occur in Korea (포도꼽추잎벌레) as well. We recently compared their morphologies and COI sequences and found that the Korean species is not B. obscurus, but a similar species either within the same genus, or possibly in a different genus of Eumolpinae of Chrysomelidae as their sequence similarity is less than 90%. Preliminary comparison between the two species is given with outer morphology and COI barcode sequences.

Lepidoptera includes over 160,000 species of butterflies and moths worldwide. They have enormous ecological and economic impact as pests, pollinators, and food sources for other organisms. We are using Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) NSF funding t 1. generate a backbone phylogeny of the entire order, 2. date major subclade divergence by re-evaluating fossils (fossil project), 3. create a rich taxonomic resource (taxon template) and 4. create a glossary of morphological terms and associated images to synergize tree-building using morphological characters - all within a worldwide online venue. Our project goal is to galvanize the broader lepidopterist community towards constructing a comprehensive and fully resolved tree. Here we present the fossil project, taxon template and morphology projects.

Study of the Korean Hemerobiidae has been so scarce that only three species in two genera were recorded in Korea. Here we report an undescribed species, Micromus angulatus, new to Korea. A brief description and images of the wing pattern, and adult and genitalia of both sexes are provided.

Actias artemis and A. gnoma are the two saturniid species of which their gracious morphology often attracts butterfly collectors. The two species, however, have similar wing patterns, even with considerable amount of variations, making difficult to distinguish between the two. We gathered about a hundred specimens of either of the species and tried to distinguish them by their wing morphology as indicated in many books and webpages. This was definitely not easy and we were not even sure if our distinction was right. We changed our plan and we first tried to sequence their COI barcode region and found that the two have more than enough difference and could easily distinguish the two by sequence similarity. Then we compared their outer morphological characters that are often used by people between the two to see if any morphological character can distinguish the two. We concluded that no one characteristic can separate the two although combination of several characteristics may do so. We also made a comparison of their genitalia and they were distinctly different. With the help of genitalic dissection, we found that they can be distinguished without actual dissection by comparing their genital end after just brushing off some scales at the end. For female comparison, a further study with more material is needed as we found the proportion of females among the samples was very low.

Acrolepiopsis nagaimo (Yasuda, 2000) belonging to the family Acrolepiidae (Lepidoptera) is newly discovered in Korea. The species was first collected wild at Wol-ak-san [Mt.] a few years ago and they were recently found to infest Chinese yam, Dioscoreabatatas at a Chinese yam experimental field of the Institute for Bioresources Research located at Andong. Diagnostic characteristics of the adult are described and photographs of adult and male and female genitalia are provided.

Seeking to improve the weak resolution of deeper divergences in an initial study based on five nuclear genes (6.6kb total) in 123 exemplars, we nearly tripled the total sequence (to 26 genes, 18.4 kb total) in one third (41) of the taxa. The expanded, deliberately incomplete data matrix consistently increased bootstrap support for previously-identified groupings, while introducing no contradictory groupings of the kind that missing data have been predicted to produce. To test the relative effectiveness of “more genes” versus “more taxa” sind that we compared two largely complete matrices, the initial 5 gene × 123 taxon and the 26 gene × 41 taxon data sets, that contain roughly equal amounts of sequence. The “more genes” data set yielded consistently, sometimes dramatically higher bootstrap support that is generally not attributable to taxon number alone. We also found that a gene-rich taxon subset provides reassuring evidence of strong underlying signal that is not obvious in subsequent larger analyses, helping to encourage and guide the search for deep relationships amid the noise of expanded taxon sampling.

The family Coniopterygidae belonging to Neuroptera with Semidalis aleyrodiformis (Stephens) is introduced from the Korean Peninsula in the present study. Taxonomic descriptions of the family and the species and illustrations of its wing and male genitalia are presented.

Study of the Korean Hemerobiidae has been so scarce that only three species in two genera were recorded in the list of insects in Korea (1994). Here we report two undescribed species, Hemerobius harmandinus and Micromus variegatus, new to Korea. Descriptions and images of the adults and their genitalia are provided.

A recent study on Neuroptera brought us an attention to a newly found group, Coniopterygidae, dustywings. As we reported for the first time this year, this family has not been taxonomically reported in South Korea while it has been reported in North Korea before. In fact, this is known to be found in Japan and China, which means this probably have been around us for a long time. However, we found there was one species of which the name was once mentioned in a paper in 1978. It was reported by Kim, H.S. et al. in 1978 in a study of citrus red mite and its natural enemies (Kim et al., 1978). Although the spelling of the species was wrong even as a synonym, the species was found to be a natural enemy of citrus red mite, Panonychus citri in Jeju-do. We here report this taxonomically undescribed species for the first time in South Korea. The species is superficially similar to white flies but, unlike white flies, it is on our side as a natural enemy.

Lycorma delicatula, once mistakenly reported its occurrence in Korea, is now suddenly common in western Korea, due to its recent arrival from China and their subsequent settlement. A history of name changes in two fulgorid species, Lycorma delicatula and Limois emelianovi is reviewed. We propose to use 꽃매미 instead of its temporary name, 주홍날개꽃매미 for Lycorma delicatula, and, based on the ICZN code 32.5.1, to use Limois emelianovi instead of Limois emeljanovi for 희조꽃매미.

With the help of KLTER/ME and KLPS in Woraksan, we have surveyed monthly diversity and seasonal prevalence of Macrolepidoptera in Wol-ak-san [Mt.], Jecheon for the period of five months from May to September since 2005. In 2007, to reduce variation, we chose two monitoring points from each of three representative vegetations in the area: Quercus mongolica-, Quercus variabilis- and Pinus densiflora-formations, abbreviated as QM, QV and PD, respectively, and collected exclusively larger moths with bucket-type of light traps for quantified survey. As a result, 1) QM and QV showed the much higher species diversity than PD; 2) in number of individuals collected, QM was the highest, almost twice that of QV, and nearly 8 times that of PD; 3) in Noctuidae and Geometridae collected, QM was the highest, while in Pyralidae and Arctiidae collected, QV was the highest; 4) June was the highest in species diversity, then July was a deep drop, probably due to a storm occurred in July; 5) the number of individuals collected may not be a good indicator as one species may be dominant too much in number of individuals: e.g., Idaea biselata collected in QM in June was over 200, changing the average number of individuals per species to 6.92, which more than twice that of all other sites per month.

애기잎말이나방아과의 1신종 강원별애기잎말이나방, Hiroshiinoueana gangweonensis sp. nov. 이 새로이 기재된다. 본속은 우리나라에서 처음올 보고는 속이다.

금번 조사를 통해 한국산 심식나방과는 3속 5종으로 정리되며, 이 중 Meridarchis속의 M. excisa와 M. jumboa가 한국 미기록종으로 보고된다. 과거에 기록된 Carposina niponensis 및 Commatarcha palaeosema는 각각 Carposina sasakii와 Commatarcha vaga의 오동정으로 판명되었으며, 김( (1955 )에 의해 신종기재된 Carposina coreana는 그 syntype이 없어 문헌에 기록된 모식산지( type locality)에서 최근 채집된 표본중 암컷 1개체를 neotype으로 지정한다. 이상으로 정리된 한국산 심신나방은 다음과 같다. Carposinidae Walsingham, 1897 심식나방과 Carposina Herrich-Schaffer, 1853 coreana Kim, 1955 산수유심식나방(개칭) sasakii Matsumura, 1900 복숭아섬석나방 Commatarcha Meyrick, 1935 vaga Diakonoff, 1989 흰점검은심식나방 (신칭) Meridarchis Zeller, 1867 excisa (Walsingham, 1900) 어깨무늬심석나방 (신칭) jumboa Kawabe, 1980 삼각무늬심석나방 (신칭)