주변 국가인 태국, 캄보디아, 베트남, 라오스 등에서 벼멸구(Nilaparvata lugens)와 흰등멸구(Sogatella furcifera)를 채집하던 중, 벼멸구와 형태가 아주 유사한 이삭멸구(N. muiri)와 벼멸구붙이(N. bakeri), 그리고 흰등 멸구와 형태가 아주 유사한 흰등멸구붙이(S. kolophon), 피멸구(S. vibix) 그리고 애멸구(Laodelphax striatellus)가 동시에 채집이 되는 등 형태적 차이점이 거의 없어 전문가도 쉽게 구분하지 못하는 문제가 있음이 확인되었다. 따라서 형태가 유사한 상기 멸구류의 종 동정을 확실히 할 수 있는 PCR용 프라이머의 개발을 위해 벼멸구 및 흰등멸구의 미토콘드리아 내 COI 영역을 특이적으로 검출할 수 있는 프라이머 세트를 제작하고 종 동정 효과를 확인하였다.

We investigated developmental characteristic of life cycle of the lawn cutworm, Spodoptera depravata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which is one of the most economically damaging pests to grasses. For larval culture the turfgrass, Zoysia japonica (Poales: Poaceae), was provided at 25℃ and 60 ± 5% humidity. Developmental period of each stage was as follows: 4.11 ± 0.19 days for eggs, 25.17 ± 3.02 for larvae, 8.80 ± 0.28 for pupae and 7.57 ± 0.95 for adults. Larvae was grown to 7th instar, unlike pre-existing data, which indicated the final age as the 6th instar. Body length of larvae changed on average from 2.772 mm immediately after hatching to 2.3 cm at 7th instar and head capsule width changed on average from 0.423 mm at 1st instar to 2.82 mm at 7th instar. Pre-period of eggs deposition was 2 days, oviposition period was 4.6 days, average fecundity per female was about 419 eggs, and hatching rate was about 83%.

In order to accumulate the ecological information of Drosophila suzukii for export negotiations of domestic strawberry, we weekly monitored occurrence of D. suzukii at three strawberry fields located in Gok-seong, Dam-yang and Hwa-sun using the best combination of trap and attractant from November 2017 to May 2018, the period of strawberry production. Monitoring was carried out at three sites (a hill located 150 meter distant to greenhouse, outside greenhouse and inside greenhouse) in Gok-seong. Drosophil suzukii was trapped at three short periods from November to the beginning of December, from the end of December to the beginning of January, and from April in a hill. At outside greenhouse, D. suzukii was trapped at two short periods from November to the early December and the beginning of May. In inside greenhouse, it occurred once after May 24th. Gok-seong data can be summarized as more occurrence for longer period as the distance to greenhouse increases. Dam-yang occurred once in a short period inside greenhouse and hill, respectively on May. In case of Hwa-sun, D. suzukii did not trapped in whole trapping sites during trapping period, except for the surrounding grape and peach cultivation areas at the end of November. Summarized, no occurrence periods are from November 20th, 2017 to May 14th, 2018 inside greenhouse; from December 11th, 2017 to May 3rd, 2018 outside greenhouse; and from January 8th, 2018 to April 12th, 2018 on a hill. In connection with strawberry culture, the D. suzukii tends to occur at the beginning and the end of the strawberry production period. We expect this result can serve as a helpful data for export negotiation for quarantine.

Bumblebee, Bombus ardens ardens (Apidae: Hymenopera), is an important resource for pollination that is most widely distributed in Korea. This study utilized microsatellite markers for investigation of genetic diversity and geographic relevance of the B. a. ardens populations in Korea. Through Next Generation Sequencing analysis, we identified 10 microsatellite markers and genotyped for 107 individuals of B. ardens collected from 10 populations. At each locus the number of alleles ranged from 10 to 23; the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.8909 to 1.0000 and 0.6641 to 0.8422, respectively; and inbreeding coefficient(FIS) ranged from –0.5053 to –0.0891. Significant deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was not observed at any locus. Population structure analysis indicated that there are three genetic groups in Korea with each Jeongseon and Ulleung-do composed of different gene pool from the remaining other populations. Similarly, Principal coordinates analysis also showed the same pattern. FST and RST analyses showed that each Jeongseon and Ulleung-do population had a significant genetic distance from other populations. Considering these results, genetic isolation of Ulleung-do may be explained by “Oceanic island” status and Jeongseon, which showed the positive FIS (0.069) and genetic isolation may be caused by its location on the east side of Baekdudaegan and by on-going inbreeding with a small population size.

The nerippe fritillary butterfly, Argynnis nerippe , is listed as an endangered species in Korea. Establishment of effective conservation strategies can be aided by the development and application of molecular markers that can be used to investigate the population genetics of the butterfly. Therefore, in this study, we identified ten microsatellite markers specific to A. nerippe using the Next-Seq 500 platform, and applied these markers to investigate the characteristics of five South Korean butterfly populations. Genotyping of 48 A. nerippe individuals from five localities showed that at each locus the number of alleles ranged from 4 to 14, and that the observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.324–0.863 and 0.138–0.985, respectively. Significant deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was not observed at any locus. Population structure analysis indicated that there are two genetic groups in Korea, but no population-based gene pool assignments were found. Analysis of FST, RST, and a principal coordinates analysis suggested that the Gureopdo and Yaecheon populations were isolated from other populations. Genetic isolation of the Gureopdo population may be a consequence of unequal population change between Gureopdo and inland populations and to the offshore habitat of Gureopdo. Genetic isolation of the Yaecheon population may be a consequence either of the southernmost location of the population or of the limited sample size available. Further studies with increased sample sizes will be necessary to draw robust conclusions on population isolation and to devise conservation strategies.

We investigated primary ecological characters, such as life cycle and morphology of the lawn cutworm, Spodoptera depravata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which is one of the most economically damaging pests to grasses. For larval culture the turfgrass, Zoysia japonica, was provided as a feed source at 25℃ and 60±5% humidity. Development period of each stage was as follows: 4.11±0.19 days for eggs, 25.17±3.02 for larvae, 8.80±0.28 for pupae and 7.57±0.95 for adults. Larval stages continued to 7th instar and this result contrasts to pre-existing data, which indicate 6th instar in S. depravata. Developmental period of each instar of S. depravata ranged from the minimum of 2.1 days to the maximum of 4.81 days, with the 7th instar longest. Correlation analysis between body length and head capsule width of each instar showed a significant correlation between the two measures. Pupal colors were changed from the light brown and green right after pupation to dark brown as pupal cuticle hardens. Wing length of adults in both sexes was similar, but forewing of male had obvious outer line and eyespot with dark gray-brown background, whereas that of female had less obvious in these characters, with light gray-brown background. Pre-period of eggs deposition was 2 days, oviposition period was 4.6 days, average fecundity per female was about 419 eggs, and rate of hatching was about 83%.

The yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), invaded into South Korea in 2003. Currently, V. velutina is distributed throughout South Korean regions,. A genetic trait of invasive species provides important data for environmental risk assessment. In this study, we analysed the genetic variation of the V. velutina among the populations of South Korea and other foreign countries using partial sequences of mitochondrial COI, CytB and 16S rRNA. We further developed intergenic spacers (IGS2 and IGS3) to detect genetic variation among Korean populations. Each single haplotype was recovered from the domestic V. velutina from each coding gene sequence. Korean individuals shared the haplotype with that of Japan and China. Phylogenetic analysis (excluding 16S rRNA) using available sequences and ours showed the presence of two groups: the Indonesia and Malaysia group and another group (Korea, Japan, China, France, Vietnam and Thailand). The newly developed IGS2 and IGS3 markers resulted in each seven and four haplotypes, providing better resolution than coding gene sequences. Analysis of Molecular Variance using the combined sequences of IGS2 and IGS3 showed that the majority of variance was allocated to each population and only minority of variance is allocated to among-populations. This result may indicate that the V. v. nigrithorax invaded in Korea shows a single panmictic population and this possibly suggest that Korean population may have originated from small founder individuals.

동남아시아에 발생하던 등검은말벌은 최근 국내 뿐만 아니라 프랑스와 일본, 유럽 전역으로 확산되어 전 세계 양봉 산업에 극심한 피해를 주고 있다. 등검은말벌을 방제하기 위해 다양한 방제 방법들이 연구되고 있으며, 그 중 말벌 유인제에 대해 국제적으로 많은 연구가 진행되어 왔으나 이 역시 지속적인 개발이 필요한 실정이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 시판 유인제와 최근 (주)다목에코텍에서 새롭게 개발한 신규 개발 유인제에 대한 효능 검정을 수행하였 고 양봉장에 출현하는 국내 발생 말벌속의 발생양상을 조사하였다. 담양 1개소와 곡성 2개소에 기존 유인제과 신규 유인제를 장착한 포획기를 각 3쌍씩 설치하여 2016년 9월부터 11월말까지 주 1~2회 관찰하였다. 그 결과 국내 발생 말벌속 중 등검은말벌(7,787 개체)이 가장 많이 포획되었고, 다음으로 장수말벌, 말벌, 좀말벌, 꼬마장수말벌, 털보말벌 순으로 포획되었다. 두 유인제의 포획력 검정 결과, 신규 개발 유인제가 통계적으로 유의하게(P < 0.01) 등검은말벌 포획력이 높음을 보였다.

The Acoptolabrus changeonleei Ishikawa et Kim, 1983 (Coleoptera: Carabidae), has been listed as an endangered insect in South Korea. The complete mitochondrial genome of the species was 16,831 bp with a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes [PCGs], 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes) and one non-coding region, with the arrangement identical to that observed in most insect genomes. Phylogenetic analyses with concatenated sequences of the 13 PCGs and 2 rRNA genes, using the Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum-likelihood (ML) methods, placed A. changeonleei as a sister to the within-subfamilial species Damaster mirabilissimus in Carabinae, with the highest nodal support by both analyses.