Insect pests show diverse behaviors and the behaviors determine the economic importance and damage aspects of the pests. For effective pest management, it is fundamental to understand behavioral ecology of the pests and incorporate the information into applications of management tactics. Among behavioral ecology, dispersal and overwintering ecologies are largely unknown for many insect pests. In this presentation, new technologies, which can facilitate tracking of insect movement in field conditions, will be addressed with a case study of Riptortus pedestris (Hemiptera: Alydidae). Also, recent findings about overwintering ecology of R. pedestris will be covered. Finally, implications of these results for pest management will be discussed.

The bean bug, Riptortus pedestris (Hemiptera: Alydidae), is one of the major pests on leguminous crops especially in Korea and Japan. Because of its economic importance as crop pest, A large proportion of research on this species have focused on applied questions related to pest management tactics. In addition to the applied research, recent studies have also revealed an interesting relationship between R. pedestris and a gut symbiont Burkholderia sp. as an ideal model system for insect-microbe symbiotic interaction. Under this circumstance, our research group initiated a series of research projects to better understand behavioral ecology of R. pedestris and address its implications for both basic and applied questions. This presentation will cover various behavioral studies with R. pedestris including sublethal effects of insecticides, harmonic radar tracking, overwintering ecology, and symbiont acquisition mechanisms

This study was conducted to investigate the movement and home range of the red-tongued viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis) from June 2006 to June 2009. This snake species inhabits an islet on Jeju Island, Gapado. A total of 132 individual snakes were marked during the study. Among the marked individuals, the number of snakes recaptured more than once was 22 (16.8 %) and the number of individuals recaptured more than twice was eight (6.1 %), indicating a relatively low recapture rate. The durations from capture to recapture varied from 1 to 710 days. However, the capture points were not much different, indicating that the moved distance of snakes and the interval between capture-recapture were not correlated. The home ranges of the Red-tongued viper snakes calculated from data of the snakes which were captured more than three times using the MCP(minimum convex polygon) method were 8∼167 ㎡(64.0±57.0 ㎡), suggesting that this snake is relatively sedentary. Home range size differences between female (Mean=62.0 ㎡) and male (Mean=66.0 ㎡) snakes were not significant. In the red-tongued viper population of Gapado, there was no statistically significant relationship between body size and home range size although it was positively correlated (r=0.675). Our results provide valuable data to understand life patterns of the red-tongued viper snakes and will be useful when conducting further ecological studies on other snake species.