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.

To investigate the effectiveness of ventilation in bumblebee colony, we ventilated bumblebee(bombus terrestris) colonies using PC cooling fan to replace the fanning behavior of bumblebees, unventilated colonies were used as controls. The temperature of the colonies that were ventilated using the cooler fan was 3 ℃ lower than the control colonies, and the rate of fanning behavior were 9 times lower in ventilated colonies than in the control colonies. Foraging activity and survival rates of worker bees in ventilated colonies doubled compared to the control colonies. Rates of seed set per flower and number of seeds set by bees in the ventilated colonies was 12 % and –15 % and 1.1 and –1.4 times higher pollination, respectively, than for the control colonies. We conclude that installing a ventilation device on the colony box can improve the internal environment of bumblebee colonies at high temperatures through ventilation and that this is a good option to increase pollination effectiveness for the crops in high temperature greenhouse conditions.

Feeding effects of the honeybee pollen products from both domestic, China, Spain and mixture of different origin on the colony development of earth bumblebee, Bombus terrestris L., were surveyed to evaluate efficient nutritional resources for commercial bombiculture in Korea. As the results, the domestic pollen was most effective to achieve high rates of oviposition (88%), colony foundation (70%), and queen production. While feeding with domestic pollens during the egg-laying period, and domestic+Chinese mixture (5:2) during the breeding period (Plot-2), it revealed high oviposition rate of 75%, colony foundation of 65%, and large numbers of adult queen production, indicating its suitability for generation subculturing. In the Plot-3, the same high oviposition rate (75%) was obtained except for feeding with the domestic+Chinese mixture (2:5) during the breeding period, which produced large number of workers.

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

Abaecin is a proline-rich anti-bacterial peptide which is known to have high activity against Gram-negative bacteria and it is originally isolated from honeybee Apis mellifera. Since the anti-bacterial peptides including abaecin were identified in the hemolymph of A. mellifera infected with Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, this result implies that honeybees express abaecin for defense against natural infection. Anti-microbial peptides including abaecin were also identified in the adult hemolymph of bumblebees. To investigate pharmacological and toxicological properties of abaecin from Bombus ussurensis, biological activities were evaluated by conducting anti-tumor, anti-microbial and cytotoxic activity assays. Abaecin exhibited significantly high anti-tumor activity against ovarian tumor cells SK-OV-3 and NIH; OVCAR-3 at 100 μM after 72 h treatment. Interestingly, abaecin showed none of anti-microbial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Since abaecin exhibited extremely low level of hemolytic activity against human erythrocytes, it may serve as a good model peptide for studying its potential as a selective anti-tumor drug.

We investigated pollination and foraging activities of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) and bumblebee (Bombus terrestris L.) during flowering season of the asian pear (Pyrus pyrifolia N.) under different weather conditions. There was no significant statistical difference about the pollination activities of two species. However, the pollination activities of bumblebee were more active than those of honeybee under low temperature and rainfall period. The activities of honeybee and bumblebee were more influenced by temperature than other factors (i.e. illumination and wind velocity). Honeybee was more sensitive to temperature and illumination than bumblebee. At low temperatures (<20℃) on cloudy days (<30,000 lux) with a certain wind velocity (>4.0 m/s), the pollination activity of the honeybee was lower twice than that of bumblebee.

The honeybee inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK) peptide acts as an antifungal peptide and insecticidal venom toxin. However, the ICK peptide from bumblebees has not been characterized. Here, we report the molecular cloning and antifungal activity of a bumblebee (Bombus ignitus) ICK peptide (BiICK). We identified a BiICK that contains an ICK fold. The BiICK was expressed in the epidermis, fat body, and venom gland of B. ignitus worker bees. A 6.7-kDa recombinant BiICK peptide was expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells. Recombinant BiICK peptides directly bound to Beauveria bassiana, Ascosphaera apis, and Fusarium graminearum, but they did not bind to Escherichia coli, Paenibacillus larvae, or Bacillus thuringiensis. Consistent with this finding, BiICK exhibited antifungal activity against fungi. These results demonstrate that BiICK acts as an antifungal peptide.

The post-hibernated queens of Korean native bumblebee, Bombus hypocrita saporoensis were collected in Jeong-Sun, Korea to investigate their ecological characteristics and reared under the laboratory conditions; 27℃, 65% R.H. and darkness. The average weight of collected queens was 0.87±0.14g and 0.8g class was most abundant (34.7%) among eight weight classes. The rates of colony initiation, colony foundation and progeny-queen production were 76.3%, 60.0% and 42.5%, respectively. The durations up to colony initiation and colony foundation were 12.0±6.7 days and 49.3±2.4 days, respectively. The duration up to first worker, male and queen emergence were 22.2±3.0 days, 63.4±6.5 days and 63.5±8.7 days, respectively. The number of progenies was 108.5±26.0 workers, 186.7±70.7 males and 39.1±30.3 queens. The longevity of colony founded queen was 90.2±19.9 days whereas that of non-colonized queen was 35.9±30.3 days. Copulation time was 29.5±9.6 min. The number of eggs per egg cell laid new queen was 9.3±2.3 grains. An egg shaped as banana and it’s size was 1.12±0.10 mm in a width, 3.54± 0.16 mm in a length and 2.26±0.34 mg in a weight.