To verify the progenitor of B. mori, we sequenced 14 B. mori strains preserved in Korea and one B. mandarina collected in Korea and conducted phylogenetic analysis of Bombycidae using maximum-likelihood method and concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs and 2 rRNA genes. All B. mori strains, regardless of their origin, formed a strong monophyletic group, with the highest nodal support. This B. mori group was placed as the sister to the two B. mandarina collected each from Korea and Shandong, China with the highest nodal support. Finally, the remaining two B. mandarina, which were collected in Japan were independently placed as the most basal lineage of B. mori and B. mandarina group. These results appear to indicate that an immediate ancestor for the domestic silkworm strains may have been originated from China and Korea.

The spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), originally distributed across a few Asian countries, including South Korea, has invaded North America and Europe, but is absent from Australia. In order to export the South Korean grape cultivar Campbell Early to Australia, its potential to serve as oviposition and development medium for SWD must first be determined. In this study, we determined the oviposition and development potential of SWD on Campbell Early, after elucidating the SWD life cycle and establishing an artificial diet-based mass-culturing system. An investigation of the life cycle under five temperature regimes (16, 19, 22, 25, and 28°C) showed that the durations of the egg, larval, and adult stages were shorten when temperature was increased from 16, 19, 22, 25, and 28°C, but pupal duration was shortest at 25°C and extended again at 28°C. A test of oviposition and development potential of SWD on Campbell Early grape clusters showed oviposition of 30.8 ± 6.8 eggs per cluster of injured grapes and 157.7 ± 16.2 eggs on a culture dish of artificial diet. However, in a similar experiment using uninjured grape clusters, only a single egg was deposited on the grape skin, which soon dried. In light of these results, newly harvested grapes left at vineyards during daily harvests are unlikely to serve as an oviposition and development medium for SWD, as long as the grapes remain uninjured.

We newly sequenced mitogenomes of five skippers belonging to Lepidoptera to obtain further insight into characteristics of butterfly mitogenomes and performed phylogenetic reconstruction using all available gene sequences (PCGs, rRNAs, and tRNAs) from 85 species in 19 families in eight superfamilies. The general genomic features found in the butterflies also were found in the five skippers: a high A/T composition (79.3% - 80.9%), dominant usage of TAA stop codon, similar skewness pattern in various levels, consistently long intergenic spacer sequence between tRNAGln - ND2 (64-87 bp), the ATACTAA motif betweent RNASer(UCN) and ND1, and characteristic features of the A+T-rich region (the motif ATAGA, varying length of poly-T stretch, and poly-A stretch). The start codon for COI was CGA in four skippers as typical, but Lobocla bifasciatus evidently possessed canonical ATG as start codon. Phylogenetic analyses mainly yielded the consensus superfamilial relationships ((((((Bombycoidea + Noctuoidea + Geometroidea) + Pyraloidea) + Papilionoidea) + Tortricoidea) + Yponomeutoidea) + Hepialoidea) with a high support for most nodes, confirming the validity of Macroheterocera and its sister relationship to Pyraloidea. Within Rhopalocera the familial relationships (Papilionidae + (Hesperiidae + (Pieridae + ((Lycaenidae + Riodinidae) + Nymphalidae))) were strongly supported, confirming invalidity of the superfamily Hesperioidea. On the other hand, superfamilial relationships among Noctuoidea, Geometroidea, and Bombycoidea and the familial relationships among Saturniidae, Sphingidae, and Bombycidae were dubious, requiring further representative taxon sampling.

Lepidoptera is one of the largest insect orders, but the phylogenetic relationships within this order, have yet to be completely described. One of the unresolved relationships includes the monophyly of Papilionoidea in relationship with the monotypic superfamily Hesperioidea. We newly sequenced five hesperid mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes), representing four subfamilies: Pyrginae (Daimio tethys and Lobocla bifasciatus), Coeliadinae (Choaspes benjaminii), and Hesperiinae (Potanthus flavus), and Heteropterinae (Carterocephalus silvicola). Along with these newly sequenced hesperid genomes phylogenetic analysis was conducted with all available lepidopteran mitogenomes including three reported species of Hesperiidae that consisted of ~70 species in ten lepidopteran superfamilies. The test for the effect of optimization schemes, such as exclusion and inclusion of third codon position of 13 PCGs, other genes (22 tRNAs and two rRNAs), and with and without partitions also was performed. Majority of datasets consistently placed the monophyletic Hesperiidae the sister to ((Pieridae + Lycaenidae) + Nymphalidae), placing another true butterfly family Papilionidae as the basal lineage of this group, presenting the relationships (Papilionidae + (Hesperiidae + ((Pieridae + Lycaenidae) + Nymphalidae))). Consistent to previous result, Pyraloidea was placed as the sister to ((Bombycoidea + Geometroidea) + Noctuoidea), placing the Macrolepidoptera as non-monophyletic group.

Body and head lice (Pediculus humanus humanus and Pediculus humanus capitis, respectively) are typical ectoparasites of humans. They differ not only in the ecological habitat but also in the vector competence in spite of their conspecific nature. Only body lice transmit several bacterial pathogens to humans, including Bartonella quintana, Rickettsia prowazekii and Borrelia recurrentis. In this study, the proliferation rates of two model bacteria, a gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and a gram negative Escherichia coli, were determined following bacterial challenge by cuticular injection. Both bacteria proliferated rapidly in body lice at the early stage of bacterial challenge but not in head lice, suggesting that head lice have more sensitive immune responses to these bacteria. In vivo phagocytosis assay revealed that head lice have much higher phagocytic activity against E. coli than body lice whereas only slight differences in phagocytic activity against S. aureus were observed between the two lice species. Taken together, these findings suggest that the reduced phagocytosis activity of body lice contributes, at least in part, to their higher vector competence.

A gregarine parasite (Apicomplexa: Protozoa) was observed in the population of daikon leaf beetle, Phaedon brassicae Baly, (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Daegwallyeong. Gregarines are well known species-specific parasites of various Arthropoda. Based on 1.727kb of 18S rDNA sequence (FJ481523), this gregarine species was grouped in eugregarine and 5.258kb of full length rDNA replicon was cloned. We also observed interaction of tropozoite or gamonto of gregarine and epithelium of host midgut using scanning electron microscope. Although development of the infected host delayed half day in every larval stage, there was no significant difference in the development of daikon leaf beetle whether it is infected or not. Therefore, this gregarine parasite is not promising candidate for bio-insecticide in daikon leaf beetle.

Body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus), obligatory human ectopasites, differ from conspecific head lice (Pediculus humanus capitas) in the choice of habitat and the capacity of disease transmission. Only body lice are known to naturally transmit a variety of human diseases, including epidemic typhus, trench fever and relapsing fever. Such differences in vectoral capacity are expected to be due to their differences in immune responses during pathogen invasion. Here, we annotated 94 immune related genes from the body louse genome and determined the differences in the transcription profiling of immune related genes between the head and body lice by qrt-PCR. In general, head louse females showed more sensitive immune responses than body louse females to Staphylococcu. aureus dermal challenge as judged by selective induction of defensin 2 in head lice. In contrast, when the 3rd nymphs were orally challenged, body lice exhibited more sensitive immune responses than head louse to Escherichia coli as judged by selective induction of defensin 1 and PGRP in body lice. These stage- and pathogen-specific differences in immune responses should provide basic insight on the vector competencies in the head and body lice.

Gregarine parasite (Apicomplexa: Protozoa) was observed in the population of daikon leaf beetle, Phaedon brassicae Baly (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Daegwallyeong. Morphological features of the gregarine in gut of P. brassicae have been studied by light microscope and scanning electron microscope with particular attention to the relationship between the epimerite and the host epithelium. On the average of mature trophozoite length and width are 100 and 40㎛, respectively. Based on 1.727kb of 18S rDNA sequence, this gregarine grouped in eugregarine.