Corythucha marmorata (Uhler, 1878), the chrysanthemum lace bug, originally distributes throughout North America. It feeds on plants in the family Asteraceae. In south central New York, it has been known as a common herbivore of Solidago spp. and Aster spp., especially Solidago altissima and Aster novae-angliae. Since the first founding of the lace bug in the western Japan (Hyogo) in 1999, it has rapidly expanded to other areas and sometimes damaged to agricultural crops such as chrysanthemum and sweet potato. In July 2012, we found the lace bug at Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, in Korea for the first time. Interestingly Aster pilosus Wild., an American exotic plant, was heavily infested with a lot of adults and nymphs of the lace bug at roadside. Subsequent survey indicates that it distributes widely in the central Korea, inhabiting a few wild plants including Erigeron annuus (L.) and Conyza canadensis (L.). In this report, we provide its morphological and molecular characteristics, distribution, host plants, and possible importance as an agricultural pest in Korea.

The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is one of the most important agricultural pests by direct feeding and begomovirus transmission in the world. B. tabaci species complex consisting of about 30 species worldwidely has been mainly distinguished by molecular methods because of difficulties detecting morphological differences. In Korea, distribution of two exotic groups, the Mediterranean (Q biotype) and the Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (B biotype), were confirmed by comprehensive molecular methods in 2012. Of them, the Q biotype as a vector of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) has caused significant crop yield losses. Tobacco leaf curl virus (TbLCV), one of four begomoviruses in Korea, was first reported in 2011. It damaged, although not frequent, to greenhouse tomatoes at Iksan, Gimje, Sunchang, and Jeju. The vector transmitting TbLCV, however, is not known yet. In this study, we sampled an unknown B. tabaci populations on leaves of the Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) at Iksan in outdoor conditions. PCR analysis revealed that some populations were infected with TbLCV. We identified an unknown indigenous genetic group named as JpL and clarified its phylogenetic relationships based on nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene.

Anaphothrips Uzel, 1895 is a large genus in the family Thripidae with about 80 species in the world. Members of the genus are generally found on plants of the grass families, Poaceae and Cyperaceae. Anaphothrips was formerly paraphyletic group until critical review by Bhatti (1978), who elevated six subgenera to generic status. Only one species, A. obscurus (Muller, 1776), has been known in Korea. It widely distributes and rarely damages to forage crops. As a result of this study, Anaphothrips asahi Kudo, 1989 is found for the first time in Korea. A. asahi easily distinguished from A. obsurus by undivided 8th antennal segment and C-shaped glandular areas on abdomen of male. Although not frequent, A. asahi also widely distributes in our country. For identification, morphological characters of two species in Korea are described and figured. In addition, biological information about distribution and plant relationship is also presented.

Dendrothripine thrips are distinguished from other members of Thripidae by a remarkably elongate, “lyre-shaped” metasternal endofurca. This furca extends to the mesothorax as a pair of sinusoidal curved spurs, providing the insertion points for powerful muscles arising from the hind legs of the salatatorial thrips. The subfamily Dendrothripinae, formerly known for a long time as the tribe Dendrothripini since Priesner (1925), was up-ranked to subfamily level of Thripidae by Bhatti (1989). Of the 97 species in 15 genera known worldwide, Dendrothrips minowai Priesner, 1935 and Pseudodendrothrips mori (Niwa, 1908) have been hitherto reported from Korea. In this study of the Korean Dendrothripinae, two species of genus Dendrothrips, D. ornatus (Jablonowski, 1894) and D. magnoliae Kudo, 1984, are found for the first time. However, D. minowai Priesner recorded by Woo (1974), is excluded from the Korean fauna because of misidentification as supposed by Kudo (1984). Morphological characters for identification of three species including P. mori previously recorded are described and figured with a key to Korean species of Dendrothripinae.

In the Old World, there are many bamboo-inhabiting phlaeothripine thrips mainly from the tropics and subtropics. Bamboosiella Ananthakrishnan and Podothrips Hood belonging to the subfamily Phlaeothripinae are well known genera in the East Asia. It is interesting that some of them are carnivorous and have the bodies bicolorous, usually the head, thorax and some of distal abdominal segments brown and the remaining abdominal segments yellow. In Korean peninsular, only two species, B. longiosanum Shin & Woo 1999 and P. sasa Okajima 1995, have been recorded from bamboo habitat. During the study of thysanopteran fauna, a newly recorded bamboo-inhabiting thrips P. odonaspicola (Kurosawa, 1937) is found from southern parts of Korea. The species have body bicolored brown and yellow, especially showing anteromedian brown marking on each of yellow abdominal segments II to V. It is known to occur under bamboo leaf sheaths and be a predator of Odonaspis secreatus Cockerell (Coccidae) in the temperate region (Okajima, 2006). In this study, taxonomic information on P. odonaspicola are presented with photos of specimens and the Korean bamboo-inhabiting thrips are briefly reviewed.

The genus Haplothrips Amyot & Serville, 1843 is a very large genus with more than 200 described species in the world. Most of congeneric species are very similar to one another, and are sometimes difficult to distinguish. The genus is most frequently found among all phlaeothripine genera in Korea. Five species have been reported from Korea: H. aculeatus (Fabricius, 1803), H. brevitubus (Karny, 1913), H. ganglbaueri Schmutz, 1913, H. kurdjumovi Karny, 1913, H. niger (Osborn, 1883). The newly recorded species Haplothrips nipponicus is recently described from Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands) by S. Okajima in 2006. The species is very similar to both of Korean species H. brevitubus and H. kurdjumovi in having sub basal wing setae b3 pointed at apex, but it can be easily distinguished by the sense-cone formula of the third antennal segment. Although the latter two species have only one sense-cone, H. nipponicus has two sense-cones on the segment. Moreover, these three species can be distinguished from one another by the shape of the male aedeagus whether it is apically rounded and laterally hardened or not. In this study, morphological characters for identification of H. nipponicus are described and figured. In addition, biological information about distribution and plant relationship is also presented.