The suborder Symphyta comprises more than 8,000 described species worldwide, of which about 4,400 extant species are recorded from the Eastern Palaearctic. Symphyta can be easily distinguished from the suborder Apocrita by the abdomen, which is broadly joined to the thorax. The larvae of most species feed on herbaceous to woody. A list of the 418 described species of Symphyta in Korea is presented. The list is in taxonomic sequence by superfamily, family, subfamily and genus and includes 116 genera in 22 subfamilies, 12 families, and seven superfamilies. We provide the page reference of the original description of every species and genus listed, Korean name, host records, and all Korean records. The list also provides the distribution of all the species by country.
For the collection of indigenous prokaryotic species in Korea, 35 strains within the class Actinobacteria were isolated from various environmental samples (animals and clinical specimens) in 2017. Each strain showed high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>98.8%) and formed a robust clade with recognized actinobacterial species. The isolates were assigned to 35 species, 22 genera, 15 families, and 8 orders of the class Actinobacteria. There are no official descriptions of these 35 bacterial species in Korea. Morphological properties, basic biochemical characteristics, isolation source, and strain IDs are included in the species descriptions.
Henricia specimens were collected using fishing nets from 14 November 2012 to 8 June 2018 from the East Sea of Korea. The specimens were identified as Henricia sanguinolenta (O.F. Müller, 1776), belonging to the family Echinasteridae of the order Spinulosida, which is known for its wide distribution throughout the world. This species can be distinguished from other Henricia species by long arms (R/r=6- 6.8), thick arm base, coarser stubby abactinal spines with more than ten apical points, and visible longitudinal series of actinal ossicles. Previously, eight species of the genus Henricia were reported in the Korean fauna. The morphological characteristics of this species were prepared and described with illustrations.
In this study, we present new records to Korea for three ciliate species [Apogonostomum pantanalense Foissner, 2016; Keronopsis polychaeta (Borror, 1966) Jankowski, 1979; Frontonia canadensis Roque and Puytorac, 1972] collected from marine (F. canadensis) and moss-covered soil (A. pantanalense and K. polychaeta) habitats. We examined the morphology of these three ciliates based on live observations and protargol impregnation. The main characters of the three ciliates are as follows: A. pantanalense: cell size approximately 130×45 μm, tail-like posterior end, and 6 or 7 ventral cirral pairs elongated to transverse cirri; K. polychaeta: size approximately 140×90 μm and approximately 18 frontal coronal cirri and 5 transverse cirri; F. canadensis: cell size approximately 100×50 μm and approximately 88 somatic kineties, 3 or 4 vestibular kineties,and 5 postoral kineties.
Three Loxoconcha Sars, 1866 (L. bizenensis Okubo, 1980, L. japonica Ishizaki, 1968, and L. tosaensis Ishizaki, 1968), one Loxocorniculum Benson and Coleman, 1963 (Lc. mutsuense Ishizaki, 1971), and two Pontocythere Dubowsky, 1939 (P. miurensis (Hanai, 1959), and P. xiphoidea Nakao and Tsukagoshi, 2002) species are briefly redescribed and illustrated. Soft part morphology of L. tosaensis are described and illustrated here for the first time, since this species was known only by the shell morphology. A key to all living Loxoconcha and Loxocorniculum species from East Asia is suggested to facilitate subsequent identification, along with the lists to all East Asian species of the three genera.
Two euplotid ciliates, Euplotes encysticus Yonezawa, 1985 and E. rariseta Curds et al., 1974, were isolated from a freshwater pond called Mulgol in Dokdo of the East Sea and from Masan Bay/Jeju Island, Korea, respectively. Both species are redescribed based on live observations and protargol impregnation. Cells of Euplotes encysticus are asymmetrically oval, 63-79×41-61 μm in vivo and capable of encystment. The cells have 31-36 adoral zone of membranelles (AZM), 9 fronto-ventral cirri (FVC), 5 transverse cirri (TC), 2-3 caudal cirri (CC), 2 marginal cirri (MC), 7 dorsal kineties (DK), and 19-22 dorsal cilia in middle DK. The cells of Euplotes rariseta has a small ovoid form and are 32-44×23-35 μm in vivo, 18-22 AZM, 10 FVC, 5 TC, 2 CC, 1 MC and 6 DK.
This study was carried out to investigate the flora of six islands belonging to the Gogunsan Archipelago (i.e.,Sinsi-do, Seonyu-do, Munyeo-do, Yami-do, Bian-do, and Duri-do) in the Korean Peninsula. As results of five field surveys from March to October of 2016, we have identified 575 total taxa, representing 527 species, five subspecies, 42 varieties, and one hybrid, placed in 358 genera and 118 families. Of these 575 taxa, four are endemic to Korea, six taxa are listed on the Korean Red List of threatened species, 67 are floristic regional indicator plants, and 74 are invasive alien species. In this study, we compared species richness among the islands, and find that the larger the islands, the higher the species richness. In the case of habitat affinity types, forest species were most common, followed by farmland, seacoast, bare ground and wetland species. From similarity analyses based on the composition of vascular plants, each island did not exhibit either local specificity or unique diversity. On the contrary, the proportion of invasive alien and ruderal species may increase by human activities. Investigations and analyses of island flora such as this are important to assess the current status of the flora, predict future vegetation patterns and the spread of the alien species, and establish managment plans of plant diversity.