Viral respiratory infections are common in horses, notably equine herpesvirus infection and equine influenza, which primarily initiate secondary bacterial respiratory infections such as strangles caused by Streptococcus equi equi. A decline in the production of stallions has been associated with these respiratory diseases leading to adverse financial implications. This study investigated the antibody responses against respiratory diseases in horses from Jeju Island a year after vaccination. A low level of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) (11.36%) antibodies was detected from stallions, however a high level of EHV-4 (95.84%) antibodies was detected from horses without vaccination against this infection suggesting that EHV-4 is ubiquitous in this horse population. In case of equine influenza, ranch stallions showed low positive rate (12.06%) whereas stallions from Subtropical Livestock Research Institute displayed higher positive rate (81.32%). Antibody responses against equine influenza and strangles revealed positive rates of 26.32% and 55.12%, respectively. These findings may draw attention towards the importance of developing an improved disease prevention and/or immunization program that will effectively control respiratory diseases in horses.

This study is intended to evaluate the value of functional aspect from the viewpoint of habitat. The indicators that are used in biotope evaluations are various, but most of them use the criteria to evaluate the naturality. This evaluation method cannot appropriately reflect the functional characteristics coming from relation to the surrounding biotope. In this study, the connectivity, cohesion and diversity between individual biotope are quantitatively measured by a landscape index. It is hard to draw the functional value of individual biotopes because the landscape index related to connectivity, cohesion and diversity comes from a landscape having a number of biotopes. The concept of contribution was used to overcome this limitation. The concept of contribution is to quantify how much each individual biotope contributes to the connectivity, cohesion, and diversity in a certain range of landscape by deriving the amount of change in the landscape index according to the presence or absence of each individual biotope. In order to understand the characteristics of evaluation results in functional aspect, this research has done a comparative analysis of the previous research findings in the same target area. According to the result of the research, individual biotopes such as artificial forests, fragmented natural forests, and small planting sites were highly rated.

Entomopathogenic fungi infect some arthropod pest and have been used for biological control. Some entomopathogenic fungi have high potential in insect pest management worldwide, and most of researches were given to Hypocreales order of Ascomycota, but little in Zygomycota, such as Entomophthorales in our country. We have identified some species belonging to Entomophthorales and investigated cultural features and ecology of Entomophaga aulicae. E. aulicae in sweet potato fields, where Aedia leucomelas was a dominant pest, had caused epizootics from 2002–2005. E. aulicae-infected A. leucomelas larva were mostly found from August to October and its occurrence was significantly related to the precipitation. E. aulicae were mainly observed in dead A. leucomelas larval populations (infection rate = 41.3% in 2002), rather than other lepidopteran pests. E. aulicae was morphologically and genetically identified and its virulence was characterized in laboratory conditions. Additionally, pest infection by Zoophthora radicans, Neozygites floridana and some Entomophthorales have been identified. On the basis with this information, we need research to predict the prevalence and to develop biological control agent using Entomophthorales including E. aulicae that contribute to regulation of host populations.

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), is an important pest in rice paddies. Because BPH cannot survive under low temperature conditions (<12℃), its outbreak in temperature areas depends on migration from overwintering areas of BPH. Geospatial distribution of BPH overwinterng area would be changed under future climate. The objective of the present study was to assess potential areas for BPH overwintering in Asia under current and future climate conditions. To reduce model uncertainty, we explored an ensemble modeling approach using five species distribution models (SDMs) and climate data from five general circulation models (GCMs). For future projections, outputs from an SDM with five sets of GCM data were averaged into a single map. Then, five maps from individual SDMs were summarized to assess the potential overwintering areas of BPH. Overall, the BPH overwintering areas expanded northward under future climate conditions. The degree of expansion in overwintering areas differed by region. For example, the uppermost boundary of BPH overwintering areas shifted north about 150 Km in southern China by 2050s. In Japan, small areas in the southern Kyushu were projected as potential areas of BPH overwintering. These results indicated that migration of BPH into East Asia including northern China, Korea, as well as Japan would occur early in the growing season, which could result in considerable damages in rice production.

We sequenced 17,329 bp of mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the black dwarf honey bee, Apis andreniformis (Hymenoptera: Apidae), that lacks ~200 bp of the A+T-rich region for the completion of the genomic sequence. The gene arrangement of A. andreniformis mitogenome is identical to that of A. cerana. However, the genome contains 5 additional tRNALeu(CUN) located 4 copies between tRNAMet and tRNAGln, and 1 copy between tRNAGln and tRNAAla, along with the typical sets of genes (13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, and 2 rRNAs) including regular tRNALeu(CUN) and the A+T-rich region (at least 923 bp). Only 1 copy of tRNALeu(CUN) differed by 1 bp from other 4 copies of tRNALeu(CUN). Each additional tRNALeu(CUN) is followed by nearly identical 68-bp long repeat sequence (95.6% identity). All 13 protein coding genes have typical start codons found in insect mitochondrial PCGs (2 ATA, 9 ATT, and 2 ATG).

Entomopathogenic fungi formulated as wettable powders and suspension concentrates have been sprayed to crop pests for pest management. However, the use of fungal granules to control paddy field pests has not been fully explored. Herein, several Beauveria bassiana isolates (ERL 1170, 1578 and 836) were produced as granules using a millet-based solid culture. The granules were applied to the rice nursery 3 days before transplanting and their control efficacy against rice water weevils was determined in paddy fields. The solid cultures produced ~1×108conidiag-1ofmilletgrains10daysaftertheinoculation. The granules were applied to the soil in the rice nursery 3 days before the rice seedlings were transplanted in the paddy fields. Rice in plots with granules of ERL1578 had 17.3% leaf damage (74% control efficacy) 14 days post application, whereas rice plants in the non-treated control had 66.5% damage. Rice plants treated in the nursery with ERL1170 and ERL836 had 52~54% damage. In the rice plots previously treated with ERL1578 the smallest numbers of larvae and adults were observed 38 days post application. In laboratory conditions, ERL1578-treated larvae were tuned pink and covered with mycelial mass. Applications of millet-based B. bassiana granules on rice nursery soil can be an effective and efficient biological control strategy for the management of rice water weevils. This method is relatively inexpensive and requires less labor compared to practices involving the spraying of fungi directly on rice in paddy fields.

In the present study, the 17,694-bp long complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the dwarf honey bee, Apis florea (Hymenoptera: Apidae), is described with an emphasis on the noteworthy triplicated tRNAser(AGN) region and an extraordinary long A+T-rich region with repeat regions. The gene arrangement of A. florea mitogenome is identical to that of A. mellifera, but has triplicated tRNASer(AGN), each of which contains the precedent 44 bp-long and following another 64 bp-long repeats plus one complete first repeat abutting to tRNAMet. A total of 1,610-bp long two repeat regions in 1,987 bp-long A+T-rich region is composed of nearly identical 141 ~ 219-bp long five tandem repeats and 50 ~ 52-bp long 12 tandem repeats that are encompassed by three non-repeat sequences. One of the common interpretations for such repeat sequence is slipped-strand mispairing and unequal crossing-over events during DNA replication.

We previously reported Pear Pest Forecasting Management System (PPFMS) for the Improvement of pass ratio of Korean exporting pears. It is consisted of regular field forecasting by pear farmers, meteorological data obtained by automatic weather station (AWS), an internet web page (http://pearpest.jnu.ac.kr/) as information collecting and providing ground, and information providing service. Currently, we are expanding this system to the area, Cheonan and Ansung, where pear orchards are organized into exportation-specific group. Further, the information obtained from field forecasting and AWS were up-loaded to under-constructing upgraded webpage (http://www.kpear.kr), with several pest/disease-related information. We hope this pest forecasting management system increases the pass ratio of Korean exporting pears throughout establishment of farmer-oriented forecasting, inspiring farmers’ effort for the prevention and forecasting of diseases and pests occurring at pear orchards.

Gene arrangement in the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) has been regarded as an important evolutionary event that is useful as a phylogenetic signal. The mountainous duskywing, Erynnis montanus, belongs to a lepidopteran family Hesperiidae. We sequenced 15,530-bp long complete mitogenome of the species. The genome has the typical gene content of animals (13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and one major non-coding A+T-rich region). Further, E. montanus mitogenome also contained a high A/T content in the whole genome (81.7%) and the CGA (arginine) as the start codon for the COI gene, as typical in lepidopteran mitogenome. However, unlike other lepidopteran species, including two sequenced skippers, the E. montanus mitogenome has a unique arrangement tRNASer-tRNAAsn, instead of the tRNAAsn-tRNASer found unanimously in other lepidopteran species, providing a new gene arrangement in Lepidoptera. Such rearrangement probably was likely caused by duplication of gene block tRNASer-tRNAAsn and subsequent random loss of tRNAAsn in the first copy and tRNASer in the second copy, resulting in the arrangement tRNASer-tRNAAsn. Considering current phylogenetic relationships among available lepidopteran groups in connection with lepidopteran gene arrangement the new gene arrangement found in E. montanus seems to be apomorphy, requiring cautious interpretation as a phylogenetic signal.

Previously, several levels of phylogenetic relationships in an insect order Odonata have been estimated using morphological and molecular markers. For the molecular phylogeny rRNA sequences were mainly, but other markers were not frequently employed. In this study, we sequenced both two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S rRNA) and nuclear genes (28S rRNA and elongation factor-1α), composed of ~4,002 bp from 71 species of Odonata, occurring mostly in South Korea. These concatenated sequences were utilized to test the previous phylogenetic hypotheses of Odonata via Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithms, along with the data partition option available in BI method. Each families and superfamilies represented by multiple taxa consistently supported monophylies with the highest nodal supports in both Anisoptera and Zygoptera. A close relationship of Anisozygoptera to Anisoptera represented by a single species was obvious. On the other hand, familial relationships within each suborder of Anisoptera and Zygoptera have shown two compelling topologies. The topology obtained by BI method with partitioning of the four genes showed an unresolved relationship among Gomphidae, Aeshnidae, and the suborder Anisozygoptera in Anisoptera clade, presenting the relationships ((((Libellulidae + Corduliidae) + Macromiidae) + (Gomphidae + Aeshnidae + Anisozygoptera)) + (((Coenagrionidae + Platycnemdidae) + Calopterygidae) + Lestidae)). Another topology obtained by both BI and ML methods without partitioning, on the other hand, placed Anisozygoptera the basal lineage of Anisoptera, but Lestidae in Zygoptera was placed as the sister to Anisoptera + Anisozygoptera, presenting the relationships (((((((Libellulidae + Corduliidae) + Macromiidae) + Aeshnidae) + Gomphidae) + Anisozygoptera) + Lestidae) + ((Coenagrionidae + Platycnemdidae) + Calopterygidae)). Topological test to find out better supported tree turned out a slight higher support for the former topology, but the monophyly of Zygoptera with the inclusion of Lestidae was supported only poorly (BPP = 0.68) in the former topology.

Worldwide studies on Apis cerana variation for biogeography and genetic diversity depended largely on a 86~93 bp-long mitochondrial non-coding region (internal spacer region) located between tRNALeu and COII (named as NC2), possibly due to higher variability among available markers. In order to incorporate the A. cerana occurring in South Korea into world extensive data, we also sequenced the NC2 from 118 A. cerana samples collected over nine Korean localities and 66 A. cerana samples over seven Asian localities, such as China, Vietnam, and Thailand. These data were combined with preexisting world data to scrutinize genetic relationships of A. cerana in South Korea to outside distributional range. Sequencing of 184 samples provided a total of ten haplotypes: five from Korea, six from China, one from Vietnam, and two from Thailand. Among them eight were new, whereas two were previously reported ones. Phylogenetic analysis of A. cerana NC2 haplotypes so far found including ours has confirmed the presence of four major groups of A. cerana (Asian mainland group, Sundaland group, Palawan group, and Luzon-Mindahnao group) and all haplotypes found in this study also were included in the Asian mainland group. In order to find further variable regions that can be used as sequence-based marker several mitochondrial non-coding regions and nuclear intron regions are in the middle of testing.