This study was surveyed the effects by pollinating activity of Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris released in the paprika vinyl-houses. The foraging activity and behaviour of A. mellifera and B. terrestris visited on the paprika flowers were nearly alike. The pick times of pollinating activity by A. mellifera and B. terrestris were showed the hightest at 11:00 and 15:00, and 09:00 to 11:00, respectively. The rate of fruit set by A. mellifera and B. terrestris released for pollinating paprika were same level with 94%, and these rate were higher than the fruit setting rate which was 92% by fan operated. The qualities of paprika produced by pollinators released were higher than those by fan operated. And weight per fruit, number of seeds per fruit and economical profit per 2,310 ㎡ were over 10% higher than those by fan operated. Therefore the economical effects by the pollinating activities of A. mellifera and B. terrestris released in the paprika vinyl-houses were obviously demonstrated.

Bumblebees are important pollinators in greenhouse and have colonized all parts of the World. In Korea, the value of bumblebees is increasing as pollinator. However, the more recent use of reared colonies may ultimately allow pathogens to spread to peripheral areas for bumblebees. Generally, bumblebees are hosts to a large number of parasites which are mites, flies, protozoa, fungi, virus and bacteria. For most of these, very little is known about their effects against host insect, epidemiology or evolutionary ecology. So, we report pathogenic bacteria isolated from Bombus terrestris and B. ignitus at first time in Korea. Bacillus fusiformis and Klebsiella oxytoca are isolated from B. terrestris and confirmed with 16S rRNA gene nucleotide comparison in NCBI genebank. Pathogenicity of B. fusiformis was 35~40% against B. terrestris. Pantoea dispersa and K. oxytoca are isolated from B. ignitus and confirmed with 16S rRNA gene nucleotide comparison in NCBI genebank. Pathogenicity of these species were 35~40% against B. ignitus. These pathogenicity are considered as low-level.

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.

We compared colony development and survival rate after artificial hibernation between the bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, produced from domestic and foreign companies. The number of worker and queen produced from foundation colony of three domestic and one foreign companies was 232.4-270.8 and 62.0-181.8, respectively, but there was no statistical difference. in colony development of B. terrestris queens which were terminated diapause by CO₂ narcosis at different companies, oviposition rate, colony foundation and progeny-queen production of bumblebees produced from domestic companies were superior to those from foreign company. But foreign company in the number of worker and queen was superior to domestic companies. On the other hand, survival rate and colony development of B. terrestris queens, which were terminated diapause by artificial hibernation at three domestic and two foreign companies, were no significant differences. These results indicate that oviposition, colony foundation, progeny-queen production, and survival rate after artificial hibernation showed no differences between the bumblebees produced from domestic and foreign companies.

토종 호박벌(Bombusignitus)과 수입 서양뒤영벌(B. terrestris)의 냉장온도별 생존율과 실내사육에 의한 봉세발달을 비교 조사하였다. -2.5, 0, 2.5, 5등 4종류 냉장온도 중 호박벌과 서양뒤영벌 모두 2.5에서 생존율이 가장 높았으며, 냉장 3개월까지는 호박벌이, 냉장 4개월째는 서양뒤영벌의 생존율이 다소 높게 나타났다. 한산가스처리로 휴면을 타파한 여왕별의 봉세발달을 조사한 결과, 산란율은 호박벌이 72.5%로 서양뒤명벌보다 6.1% 높았고, 산란전기간도 17.4일로 7.4일 빨랐다. 일벌이 50마리 될 때까지의 봉군형성소요일수, 수벌 및 여왕벌출현소요일수 또한 호박벌이 각각 62.8일, 66.4일, 63.0일로 서양뒤명벌보다 2.1-29.5일 빨리 출현하였다. 그러나 일벌출현소요일수는 28.6일과 28.4일로 차이가 없었다. 반면에 우수봉군의 지표가 되는 봉군형성률 및 신여왕벌출현봉군율은 서양뒤영벌이 각각 14.2%, 13.6%로서 호박벌보다 3.8-5.7배 높게 나타났다. 성충출현수 역시, 서양뒤영벌이 일벌 104.2 마리, 수벌 317.9 마리, 여왕벌 27.1 마리로 호박벌보다 1.1-1.8배 많아 봉세 발달은 서양뒤영벌이 우수한 것으로 나타났다.