Bee traffic at the hive entrance can be used as an important indicator of foraging activity. We investigated patterns of honeybees and bumblebees near their hives as a basis for calculating bee traffic using the image deep learning. The flight pattern near the hive differed significantly according to bee at entering and leaving the hive. Honeybees mainly showed flight that changed flight direction more than once (69.5%), whereas bumblebees mainly performed straight flight (48.7%) or had a single turn (36.5%) in flight. When bees entered the hive, honeybees primarily showed one-turn or two-turn flight patterns(88.5%), and bumblebees showed a one-turn flight pattern (48.0%). In contrast, when leaving the hive, honeybees primarily showed a straight flight pattern (63.0%), and bumblebees primarily showed a straight or one-turn pattern (90.5%). There was a significant difference in flight speed according to the flight pattern. The speed of straight flight (0.89±0.47 m/s) was 1.5 to 2.1 times faster than flight where direction changed. Therefore, our results can help determine the capturing and recognizing the flying image of bees when calculating bee traffic by image deep learning.

수입되는 서양뒤영벌과 그에 대한 화분매개 대체안들을 비교 평가하기 위해 증분이익을 추정하여 분석하였다. 분석결과, 판매수익에서 공통 생산원가를 차감한 증분수익은 인공수분을 사용할 때보다 화분매개곤충을 사용할 때 더 많았으며, 증분원가는 수입산 서양뒤영벌이나 꿀벌을 사용할 때보다 국내산 서양뒤영벌이나 인공수분을 사용할 때 더 적었다. 각 대안별 증분이익을 살펴보면, 수입산 서양뒤영벌 46,801 백만원, 국내산 서양뒤영벌 47,170 백만원, 꿀벌 46,975 백만원, 인공수분 29,839 백만원 이었다. 증분이익은 각 대안을 선택했을 경우 얻을 수 있는 회계적 이윤을 의미한다. 다만, 회계적 이윤 전부를 화분매개 대안이 기여한 것으로 볼 수 없으며, 귀속지대나 정상이윤과 같은 잠재적 비용이 포함되어 있다. 잠재적 비용에 해당하는 기회원가를 고려할 때, 수입산 서양뒤영벌을 사용하는 대안은 경제적 손실이 발생하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 과수⋅작물 생산농가가 수입산 서양뒤영벌을 사용하는 대신 다른 대체안을 선택할 경우 추가적인 경제적 이윤을 창출할 수 있음을 의미한다.

We investigated the sexual maturity time of B. ignitus. In investigating ovary development, the time of sexual maturity of queen was 10 days after eclosion. In case of male, the number of sperm was 246 thousand at immediately after eclosion, and was highest as 480 thousand at 9 days, and tended to show a dramatic decline at 35 days (87 thousand). In consideration of number of sperms, the time of sexual maturity of male was 3-15 days after eclosion. In the sexual maturity time of queen in mating, the queen was not mated at immediately after eclosion, and showed a decrease in 20 days. On the other hand, the male showed 3.3% of mating at immediately after ecolosion, showed the highest of 43.3% at 6 days after eclosion, and tended to decrease in 25 days. In summary, sexual maturity time of B. ignitus in reproductive organs and mating is most favorable in 9-12 days after eclosion for queen and 6-9 days for male.

화분매개곤충인 호박벌(B. ignitus)의 교미율을 높이기 위하여 생식기관 발육과 교미에 의한 성적 성숙시기를 조사하였다. 난소 소관 당 알 수와 수정낭 크기 등 난소 발육으로 볼 때, 여왕벌의 성적 성숙시기는 우화 10일 이내이었다. 수벌의 정자수는 우화당일에 24.6만개이었고, 우화 9일째가 48.0만개 정도로 가장 많았으며, 우화 35일(8.7만개) 이후 정자수가 감소하는 경향을 보였다. 또한 교미횟수가 증가함에 따라 정자수가 줄어드는 것을 알 수 있었다. 수벌의 정자수에 의한 성적 성숙시기는 우화 3~15일이었다. 교미에 의한 성적 성숙시기 조사결과, 여왕벌은 우화직 후에는 전혀 교미를 하지 않았으며, 우화 20일 이후에는 교미율이 떨어지는 경향을 보였다. 교미율과 산란율 등으로 볼 때 여왕벌의 교미에 적합 한 시기는 우화 9~20일이었다. 반면에 수벌은 우화 직후에도 3.3% 교미하였으며, 우화 6일째가 43.3%로 가장 높았으며, 우화 25일 이후부터는 감소하는 경향이었다. 교미율과 산란율 등으로 볼 때, 수벌의 교미 성숙시기는 우화 6~20일이었다. 이상의 생식기관 발육과 교미에 의한 봉세발 달 등으로 볼 때 호박벌 여왕벌의 최적 성적 성숙시기는 우화 9~12일, 수벌은 우화 6~9일로 판단된다.

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.

For economic effect on an import prohibition for the buff-tailed bumblebee, income of the bumblebee products, function, economic effect of pollinating insects and bumblebee were analyzed. The largest incremental gain was observed when using domestic bumblebees. Incremental revenue showed a larger incremental revenue in pollination than artificial pollination, the cost of artificial pollination was lowest for incremental cost, followed by domestic bumblebees, honeybees and imported bumblebees. Consequently, higher economic value can be achieved when domestic bumblebees and honeybees are used. According to this study, as it is used to make policy decisions on the prohibition of import of buff-tailed bumblebee, other alternative plan can be utilized due to its import prohibition.

We investigated pollination properties of bumblebees in a high temperature condition i. e. a greenhouse where onions(Aliumcepa) were cultivated. Foraging activity of bumblebee workers decreased at temperature over 33 ℃ and was negativelycorrelated with colony temperature. Fanning behavior was observed at temperature over 30 ℃ and was positively correlatedwith colony temperature. There was negative correlation between the number of bees fanning and bees foraging. We expectedthat foraging activity would be affected by colony temperature and fanning behavior. The temperature of the coloniesthat were ventilated using the cooler fan was 3 ℃ lower than the control colonies, and the rate of fanning behaviorwere 9 times lower in ventilated colonies than in the control colonies. Foraging activity and survival rates of workerbees in ventilated colonies doubled compared to the control colonies

Biological activities of bombolitins from Bombus ardens, B. consobrinus, B. terrestris and B. ussurensis (bombolitinsA, C, T and U, respectively) were examined using hemolytic, anti-microbial, anti-fungal and anti-tumor activity assays.Among the four bombolitins tested, bombolitin T showed the highest hemolytic and anti-tumor activities. All bombolitinsexhibited strong anti-microbial and anti-fungal activities, and bombolitin A specifically possessed the highest anti-microbialactivity against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli. Circular dichroism spectrometry analysis revealed that allfour bombolitins had over 61.7% and 45.5% of α-helicity in 30 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate and 50% trifluoroethanolbuffers, respectively, which form lipid-membrane-mimicking environments. Bombolitin T showed the lowest IC50 valuesof 8.5 μM and 8.8 μM against SK-OV-3 and NIH-OVCAR-3 cell lines, respectively, after 72 h of treatment, but itsrelative hemolytic activity at a concentration of 200 μM was 2.3-fold higher than that of 0.1% Triton X-100. Thisstudy provides new information on the biological and molecular properties of venom peptides of bumblebees. However,further studies on reducing cytotoxicity of bombolitins are needed for designing selective anti-tumor peptides.

In the age of sexual maturity of queen, mating occurred at 6.7% immediately after eclosion and it was the highest as 85.0% at 10 days after emergence. However, a remarkable decrease was occurred at 20 days after the emergence. With regard to oviposition rate, the highest rate was observed as 81.3-81.8% at 6 to 10 days of eclosion. The rate of colony foundation and progeny-queen production were the highest as 43.8% and 37.5%, respectively, at 8 days of eclosion. In the age of sexual maturity of male, mating rate was as high as 38.3% immediately after the eclosion, the highest as 80.0% at 25 days of eclosion, and 76.6% at 8 days of eclosion. The oviposition rate was the highest as 76.9% at 6 days of eclosion, and decreased to 75.0% at 8 days and 72.7% at 10 days of eclosion. Summarized, our results indicate that sexual maturity for mating of B. terrestris is most favorable 6-8 days after eclosion for queen and 6-10 days after for male.