CD63, a member of tetraspanin membrane protein family, plays pivotal role in cell growth, motility, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions and cancer. In this work, the cDNA encoding CD63 homologue (TmCD63) was cloned from larvae of coleopteran beetle, Tenebrio molitor. The cDNA is comprised of an open reading frame of 705 bp, encoding putative protein of 235 amino acid residues. In silico analysis shows that the protein has four putative transmembrane domains and one large extracellular loop. The characteristic ‘Cys-Cys-Gly’ motif and ‘Cys188’ residues are highly conserved in the large extracellular loop. Phylogenetic analysis of TmCD63 revealed that they belong to the insect cluster with 50-56% identity. Analysis of spatial expression patterns demonstrated that TmCD63 mRNA is mainly expressed in gut and Malphigian tubules of larvae and the testis of the adult. Developmental expression patterns of CD63 mRNA showed that TmCD63 transcripts are detected in late larval, pupal and adult stages. Interestingly, TmCD63 transcript was upregulated the maximum 4.5 fold in response to DAP-type peptidoglycan during the first 6 h, although other immune elicitors also made significant increase in the transcript level at later time-points. These results suggest that CD63 might contribute to T. molitor immune response against various microbial pathogens.

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.] for the period of five months from May to September since 2005. Since 2007, to reduce variation, we chose two monitoring points, instead of one, for each of the three representative vegetations: 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. In 2009, as a result, QV showed higher species diversity and specimen number than QM or PD although the differences between QV and QM are subtle. The number of individuals collected may not be a good indicator, e.g., Idaea biselata collected in QM in June was over 200 in 2007, which is more than twice the number of specimens in all other sites per month, while the number in 2008 was dropped to only 10 specimens. In 2009, they became a dominant species again, showing biennial dominancy trend. It also seems that we are experiencing major decline of specimen numbers: 651 specimens collected in 2009 while 874 specimens collected in 2008, which was already a big reduction compared to over 2500 specimens in 2007

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.