We investigated the distribution, sex ratio, and natural enemies and nesting competition insects of mason bees, Osmia spp. in 32 apple orchards during 2006 to 2008. The rate of bee nested was 14.0±1.7%. The rate of fauna nested were Osmia spp., 66.0%, natural enemies, 21.7% and nesting competition insects, 11.6%. We collected five species of Osmia spp. consisting of Osmia cornifrons, O. pedicornis, O. taurus, O. satoi and O. jacoti. In case of collected five Osmia spp, O. cornifrons was 69.6%, which was the dominant species and O. pedicornis was 13.0% and O. taurus was 11.2%, respectively. The collecting rate of Osmia spp. was significant difference among each year and 10 locations. The sex ratio of Osmia spp. were 1:1.9 in O. cornifrons, 1:5.1 in O. pedicornis and 1:2.2 in O. taurus. The sex ratio of O. cornifrons was significant difference among each year and 10 locations. Seven species of natural enemies that attack Osmia spp. were collected in apple orchard. Trogoderma and Chaetodactylus showed the highest rates with 48% and 38% among 7 natural enemies. Also, we collected nine species of nesting competition insects. Anterhynchium flavomaginatum showed the highest rates with 38.6% among 9 nesting competition insects.

To increase the fruit quality of the Japanese apricot, 3 species of insects, Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris and Osmia cornifrons were used for pollination in Japanese apricot field in Jinju and Sancheong province. And also economical effect for crops of Japanese apricot fruit pollinated with same insect was analyzed. This study was also conducted using 3 kinds of methods for pollination effect, natural condition, net-house and control method. Because blooming period of Japanese apricot was different from the other fruit tree(Blooming time of Japanese apricot shows always in the middle of the March), foraging behavior of insects used in this examination showed different tendency each other. Especially O. cornifrons was not adapted to wind and lower temperature compared with A. mellifera and B. terrestris in this field condition. Rate of fruit set pollinated with A. mellifera and B. terrestris was showed 14.9% and 13% respectively. But O. cornifrons was lower than another 2 kinds of insects with 6% of fruit setting rate. Total rate of fruit set of Japanese apricot showed lower tendency compared with other kinds of fruit tree with under 30%. Quality of fruit pollinated with A. mellifera and B. terrestris showed higher than O. cornifrons in natural field condition in fruit weight. Economical income of Japanese apricot fruit producted by A. mellifera showed highest with 185% of benefit effect, and B. terrestris with 143% compared with natural field condition.

Bumblebees are widely used to pollinate crops in greenhouses and fields. Here, we investigated whether different wake-up treatments during a short period of 1-3 days just before indoor rearing has any effects on oviposition and colony development of CO2-treated Bombus ignitus queens and artificially hibernated B. terrestris queens The wake-up regimes were defined as 16L for 1 day (16L-1), 16L per day for 3 days (16L-3), 24L for 1 day (24L-1), or 24D for 1 day (24D-1). Among these wake-up treatments, the oviposition rate and preoviposition period of B. ignitus queens reared at 24L-1 were 16.7-25.1% higher and 1.0-3.5 days shorter than other wake-up treatments. B. terrestris queens reared at 24L-1 also showed the best results for egg-laying characteristics, which were 8.9-18.8% higher for oviposition and 0.6-3.5 days shorter for preovipostion period than other wake-up treatments. Furthermore, B. terrestris queens reared at 24L-1 were 17.5% and 13.8% higher in rate of colony foundation and queen production, respectively, than other wake-up treatments. These results show that the most favorable wake-up treatment just before rearing for egg-laying and colony developmental characteristics of B. ignitus and B. terrestris queens was 24L-1. Overall, our findings indicate that a wake-up treatment just before rearing was effective for colony initiation and colony development of bumblebee queens.

We investigated the distribution and habitat characterization of Korean Osmia spp. in apple orchard of 32 localities during 2005 to 2008. A total of 6,737 Osmia spp. were collected, consisting of six species, which was Osmia cornifrons, O. pedicornis, O. taurus, O. benefica, O. satoi and O. jacoti. The rate of bee nested was 11.7%. Among collected 32 localities, Choongju showed the most collecting rate among other localities, which was 22.4% and 17.5% for Yeongju and 14.9% for Geochang. In case of collected six Osmia spp, O. cornifrons was 60.2%, which was the dominant species and O. pedicornis was 20.4% and O. taurus was 10.8%, respectively. In case of sex ratio, O. cornifrons was 1 : 2.7 and 1 : 5.6 for O. pedicornis and 1 : 2.3 for O. taurus. Osmia spp. was more collected at habitat conditions within apple orchard with plentiful pollens place and abundant water.

We investigated the mating age for sexual maturity and sperm quality of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris queens and males. In the mating age of sexual maturity of queen, mating rate was 6.7% at just emergence, 85.0% at 10 days of emergence, and decreased thereafter. In case of mating age of sexual maturity of male, mating rate was 38.3% at just emergence and 62.5% to 75.0% at 7 days to 20 days of emergence. The colony development at aging of B. terrestris queen and male was a similar tendency to the mating age of sexual maturity. In case of multiple mating, B. terrestris male was mated by 4 times, which was 74.3% for one time, 50.0% for two times, 22.9% for three times and 8.6% for four times. The number of spermatozoa was increased as the age of male was older until 25days after emergence. The number of spermatozoa of non-mated males of one day and 3 days after emergence was higher at 1.2 and 1.7 times than that of mated males and 18.9 and 36.6 times than that in spermatheca of mated queen. Our results indicate that period favorable for artificial insemination of B. terrestris was from 6 days after emergence for queen and 7 days after emergence for male.

vitellogenin cDNA was cloned from the bumblebee Bombus ignitus. The cDNA encoding B. ignitus vitellogenin (BiVg) is 5473 bases long with an open reading frame of 1773 amino acid residues. BiVg possesses two consensus (RXXR/S) cleavage sites and has the conserved DGXR and GL/ICG motif near its C-terminus. The deduced amino acid sequence of BiVg cDNA showed significant similarity with hymenopteran Vgs (51% identity to Apis mellifera Vg, and 33-36% to other insect Vgs). The BiVg cDNA was expressed as a 200-kDa polypeptide in baculovirus-infected insect Sf9 cells. Northern and Western blot analyses showed the expression of BiVg in fat bodies of pupae and adults. In queens, the expression of BiVg was first detected in late pupal stage fat bodies, and secreted BiVg was also observed in late pupal stage hemolymph.

The current status of insect pollinator use was surveyed. Honeybee was larger than mason bee and bumblebee in average use area per farm household at kinds of insect pollinator. Insect pollinator was used at 19 crops. Among them, tomato was the most used crop, which was 44.9%, and in order to apple 26.7%, strawberry 13.1%, red-pepper 7.7% and watermelon 3.7%. In the use of insect pollinators, bumblebee, which was 56.9%, was higher than honeybee (31.3%) and mason bee (11.8%). The most farmers were a positive intention except for 1.5% of farmer in the use of insect pollinator for crop pollination. The best advantage in insect pollinator use was improvement of seed setting percentage, which was 28.3% and the worst problem was low activity at bad weather, which was 25.8%. And also, 97% of farmers have an intention to use continuously insect pollinator.

In order to select the superior lines of bumblebee queens(Bombus terrestris) in oviposition and colony development which has some characteristics of diapause with adult type, undiapaused bumblebee queens of 3rd generation were surveyed in room condition compared to queen treated with CO2 and artificial hibernation. Oviposition rate and preovipositional days of undiapaused queens was lower in efficacy with 46.7% and shows same trend in preovipositional days with 52.8 days than the other treatment with CO2 anesthesia and artificial hibernation with 60.0%, 86.7%, 26.1 days and 26.6 days respectively. In continuous experiment, we also surveyed ovipositional characteristic and colony development of three types of queens emergenced from undiapaused queens and treated queens with CO2 and artificial hibernation. Although undiapaused queens in 1st generation were more effective in the same condition than treated queens, but the undiapaused queens of 3rd generation emergenced from undiapaused queens of 2nd generation were very low trend in all checkpoints compared with treated queens in same generation. This results was shown that the queens treated with CO2 or artificial hibernation need to be in successive mass rearing continuously in the year round.

We investigated mating conditions about care temperature of queen before mating, mating period, and number of queen per mating cage to improve mating rate of Bombus terrestris. Among 19℃, 22℃ and 25℃, care temperatures of queen before mating, queen cared at 19℃ was more effective than those at 22℃ and 25℃ in death rate during care and mating periods, and colony development. In case of mating period, oviposition rate and preoviposition periods at queen mated during 3 days were 89.3% and 11.4 days, respectively, which was higher and earlier than those of queen mated during 5 days and 7 days. The rate of worker emergence, colony foundation and progeny-queen production at 3 daysmated queen were also 2.0-11.6% higher than those at queen mated during 5 days and 7 days. In number of queen per mating cage, the rate of worker emergence, colony foundation and progeny-queen production queen mated at mating cage with 10 queens and 30 males were 41.5%, 25.9% and 23.2%, respectively. These values correspond to 1.5-6.8 folds those queen mated at cage with 20 queens and 30 queens. Therefore, we supposed that care temperature favorable for B. terrestris queen was 19℃ and the period need to mating was 3 days, and the number of queen per mating cage (55× 45× 65㎝) was 10.

The large bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, which is indigenous to Europe and is used extensively for high-value crop pollination, has been artificially introduced throughout the world. Here we show the interspecific cross-mating between bumblebee species, B. terrestris and B. ignitus under laboratory conditions. The mating and oviposition rates of interspecific cross-mating of B. terrestris queen with B. ignitus male are higher than those of intraspecific matings of B. ignitus. Furthermore, the competitive copulation experiment indicates that cross-mating of a B. ignitus male with B. terrestris queen is 1.8-fold more frequent than with a B. ignitus queen. The cross-mated B. ignitus queen with B. terrestris male produced B. ignitus workers and B. ignitus male offspring, and the cross-mated B. terrestris queen with B. ignitus male produced both B. terrestris males and B. ignitus male offspring. The genetic tests using a portion of the mitochondrial COI gene for the parent and hybrid offspring indicate that mitochondrial DNA was maternally inherited. Our results indicate that interspecific cross-mating occurred between B. ignitus and B. terrestris, which suggests that the cross-mating is not an exclusive force against the negative impact of competition and genetic contamination on native bumblebees.

“Wonchubyeo” is a new japonica rice (Oryza sativatute (KAERI) and was released in 2004. In order to select the mutants of Chucheongbyeo with god traits, the seds were ira-diated with 250 Gy gama ray (83.3 rad/min) emited from 60Co in a radiation facility