In traditional taxonomy on the family Cantharidae, color pattern of the body and the structure of the male genitalia have been often used as diagnostic characters in identification of the specific level. However, these characters caused the difficulty in identifying the female in case a species was described only by male specimens or has the several color types among individuals. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the species reality of Asiopodabrus fragiliformis which was often difficult to be identified due to individual variation in color pattern and lack of information of female, through searching for new morphological diagnostic characters as well as DNA barcoding analysis, including their closely relative species from Russia and Japan. The results showed that A. fragiliformis was represented as three clusters strongly supported by high value of boots trap (>99%) and over 3% branch length. The pairwise distances between species of Asiopodabrus were detected larger, ranged from 3.4–9.5%, than the intragroup distance ranged from 0–2.9% indicating presence of a barcoding gap. And then, the three clusters were respectively determined as A. fragiliformis, A. kurvatovi and a new species through the analysis of morphology and COI gene. Therefore, we suggest that the species delineation on polymorphic species and the female specimens of closely resembling species would be more exactly and effectively determined if DNA barcoding and the traditional taxonomy are used as complementary methods for identification.

DNA barcode is known to be successfully applied in identification on the members of Insecta. In recent studies, however, it was known that the DNA approach may fail in several taxa with following cases: (1) very recent speciation and hybridization, (2) recent diverged groups with complex gene histories, (3) the spread of maternally transmitted bacteria, (4) adding more than one geographical race and at least one congener, (5) different levels of dispersal. In this study, we taxonomically review on the Korean Hatchiana using the morphological data and DNA barcodes. In morphology, they are distinct from each other by the characteristics of body coloration, eye, pronotum, scutellum, and aedeagus. In molecular data, however, the interspecific sequence distance ranged from 0.0-3.4%. This result is caused by H. glochidiatus, of which the sequence divergence is 0.2-2.8% in H. rosinae, 0.8-2.6% in H. baekripoensis, and 0.0-3.3% in H. jirisanensis. Also, H. glochidiatus produces mixed-clusters with H. rosinae and H. jirisanensis in NJ phenogram. Through this presentation, therefore, we discuss on why the four Korean Hatchiana species distinct by morphological characters produce mixed-clusters in DNA barcoding.

A new species, Hatchiana n. sp., is confirmed by morphological and molecular data. The genus Hatchiana Fender, 1966 belonging to Podabrini LeConte, 1881 is distinguished by the shape of tarsal claws: all tarsal claws with blunt tooth in both sexes. The genus was recognized as a subgenus of Podabrus Westwood, 1838. Recently, however, Hatchiana was suggested as separated genus. The genus Hatchiana was known as 12 species in Palaeartic region including three species from Korea. In this study, we found Hatchiana n. sp. from several areas of Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. This new species is different from closely relative species, Hatchiana jirisanensis (Kang & Kim, 2000) by following morphological characters: size of compound eye, length of antennae, shape of pronotum, shape of scutellum, and shape of aedeagus. Also, we compare the DNA barcoding region (the former region of CO1 gene) between these two species as molecular characters. In result, Hatchiana n. sp. is distinct from Hatchiana jirisanensis Kang & Kim by discrepancy of three percents in CO1 sequence. Therefore, the Korean Hatchiana is confirmed as four species, adding Hatchiana n. sp.

한국산 Podabrus속은 Heyden(1887)이 P. heydeni Kiesenwetter를 처음으로 보고한 후, 현재까지 총 9종이 기록되었지만, 5종이 오동정으로 확인되었으며, 3신종, P. jirisanensis n. sp., P. fragiliformis n.sp., P. circumangulatus n. sp.을 발견, 기재하였다. 분포가 의심스러운 P. nigriventris Fischer는 본 논문에서 재확인하지 못하였다. 또한 Cantharinae아과에 속하는 속과 Podabrus속에 속하는 종에 대한 검색표와 채집지 및 해부현미경 사진을 수록하였다.

한국산 병대벌레과는 Cantharinae와 Chauliognathinae의 2아종만이 기록되어 있었다. 그러나 이번 연구 결과, Silinae아과에 속하는 Silis triimpressa Pic와 Malthininae 아과에 속하는 Malthinus quadratipennis, n. sp.와 Malthinellus bicolor Kiesenwetter가 확인되었기에 보고한다. 또한, Chauliognathinae 아과는 Trypherus niponicus(Lewis)가 기록되어 있지만, 국내에는 기재문이 없기에 재기재하였다. 이 보고서에서는 Cantharinae아과를 제외한 한국산 2아과, Silinae, Malthininae, Chauliognathinae를 재정리하였다.