Commercially managed bees are available for pollination services and are used in large commercial fields, small gardens, or enclosures such as greenhouses and screen houses. This paper describes the current status and agricultural utilization of commercially managed bumblebees as well as bumblebee rearing techniques in Korea. We surveyed the use rate and number of bumblebees for the pollination of 10 major horticultural crops and fruit trees in Korea; in 2009, the use rates were approximately 7.9% and 2.8%, respectively. The use number of bumblebees as pollinators was more than 64,345 colonies, which included 51,400 colonies for 10 major horticultural crops and 12,945 colonies for 10 major fruit trees in 2009. The value of bumblebees as pollinators in 2009 in Korea was estimated at more than 5,100,000,000 won. We also describe feeding, rearing room conditions, colony initiation, mating and diapause breaks to establish year-round mass rearing techniques of the bumblebee Bombus ignitus.

To evaluate the growth rate of larval and pupal parameters of silkworm Bombyx mori fed with Silver Nanoparticles (AgNps) treated $MR_2$ mulberry leaves, the following works have been considered. The AgNp was synthesized by chemical reduction method, it was diluted by different concentrations such as 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (without dilution). Fresh mulberry leaves (Morus alba L.) were sprayed by each concentration and were fed to silkworms, from $3^{rd}$, $4^{th}$ and $5^{th}$ instar, five feedings/day. Group $T_1$ larvae received $MR_2$ mulberry leaves sprayed with distilled water and served as control, group $T_2$, $T_3$, $T_4$ and $T_5$ larvae received 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% AgNps sprayed mulberry leaves, respectively. Silkworm larvae fed on M. alba ($MR_2$) leaves sprayed with 25% concentration of AgNps (group $T_2$) was significantly increased the larvae and cocoon length, width and weight as compared to those fed on control (group $T_1$) $MR_2$ mulberry leaves and other groups ($T_3$, $T_4$ and $T_5$). Hence, 25% AgNps dose was fixed as an effective dose. It has been observed from the present study that 25% AgNps treated (group $T_2$) leaves fed by silkworms have enhanced the larval and pupal growth and quantity of silk production than control.

The performance of five newly evolved cross breeds were evaluated across seasons to understand the genotype and environment interactions and their stability under fluctuating tropical environmental conditions along with control hybrids $PM{\times}CSR2$ and $APM1{\times}APS8$. The data was collected on eight economic traits namely fecundity, yield per 10,000 larvae by number, yield per 10,000 larvae by weight, survival rate, cocoon weight, cocoon shell weight, cocoon shell ratio and filament length. The data was subjected for Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and relevant statistical methods. The performance data obtained was further subjected for multiple trait evaluation index method. The ranks were adjudicated based on the index values. The two hybrids viz., $MSO3{\times}APS45$ and $MSO1{\times}APS12$ performed well under diversified environmental conditions indicating their overall stability and superiority. These hybrids revealed highly significant (p < 0.01) improvement for the majority of the traits over the control hybrids.

Reproductive activity in the economically important insect, Antheraea mylitta is very important because the female reproduces only once in her life time and the aging is very rapid and costly. It is a capital breeder and strictly a monoandrous species. To know how strategically the insect behaves and the male allocates its ejaculate resource more prudently during its successive mating with virgin females to maximize its own fitness and the fitness of the female with whom it mated, both being most important to sericulture industry. So, the present study was undertaken and the results revealed fresh and virgin females always prefer to mate with fresh virgin males (84%) and receives high dose of ejaculates leading to higher hatchability than to virgin males of one day old (13.7%) and one day old males with mating experience (2.3%). The ejaculation size (as referred to eupyrene sperm count in the ejaculation) declined significantly over successive mating (r = -0.9931, P < 0.001), so also the male body weight (r = -0.9560, P < 0.001). The quantity of ejaculate passed to female also dramatically declined during aging (r = -0.9982, P < 0.001). It was found that male weight contribute substantially to the quantum of ejaculate (r = -0.9519, P < 0.001), so also higher fecund females receive relatively more ejaculate than the lower group to reach higher reproductive fitness. The life time fecundity was found to be $334{\pm}31$.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is involved in many cellular signaling pathways, it participates in many physiological processes, such as cell cycle, growth, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. To investigate the effect of PKC on the silkworm midgut tissue infection of Bombyx mori parvo-like virus (BmPLV), a B. mori atypical protein kinase C (BmaPKC) gene was cloned from larval midgut tissue, expressed in E. coli and purified. Additionally, the BmPLV susceptible silkworm strain and resistant silkworm strain were used to test the effect of the B. mori infection on BmPLV. The result showed that BmaPKC encodes a predicted 586 amino acid protein, which contains a C-terminal kinase domain and an N-terminal regulatory domain. The maximum expression amount of the soluble (His)6-tagged fusion protein was detected after 0.8 mmol/L IPTG was added and cultured at $21^{\circ}C$. The (His) 6-tagged fusion protein revealed about 73 kDa molecular weight which confirmed by western blot and mass spectrography. Furthermore BmaPKC protein were detected at 0-72 h post-infection in BmPLVinfected larval midgut tissue, western blot showed that as time went on, the expression of BmaPKC increased gradually in susceptible strain, the expression quantity on 72 h is 5 times of 0 h. However, in resistant strain, the expression quantity is slightly lower than susceptible strain. But no significant change in resistant strain was observed as time went on. The available data suggest that BmaPKC may involve in the regulation of BmPLV proliferation.

The Scarites aterrimus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), is one of the carabid beetles dwelling exclusively on coastal sandy dunes. Habitat deterioration and equivalent activity have greatly concerned population declines in several species dwelling on the coastal sandy dunes. As a first step to establish long-term conservation strategy, we investigated the nation-wide magnitude and nature of genetic diversity of the species. As a first step, we sequenced a portion of mitochondrial COI gene, corresponding to "DNA Barcode" region (658 bp) from a total of 24 S. aterrimus individuals collected over nine sandy dunes belonging to four Korean provinces. The sequence analysis evidenced moderate to low magnitude of sequence diversity compared with other insect species distributed in Korean peninsula (0.152% to 0.912%). The presence of closely related haplotypes and relatively high gene flow estimate collectively suggest that there had been no historical barriers that bolster genetic subdivision. Population decline was postulated on the basis of several missing haplotypes that are well found in the species with a large population size. This interpretation is consistent with field observation of small population size in the coastal sandy dune habitats. The highest genetic diversity estimates were found in the coastal sand dune population of Seogwipo, Jeju Island, justifying a prior attention to the population, in order to sustain overall genetic diversity of the species. Further scrutinized study might be required for further robust conclusion.

To elucidate the novelty of Hyphantria cunea nucleopolyhedrovirus (HcNPV) isolated in Korea, polyhedrin and inhibitor of apoptosis (iap) gene structures were determined and analyzed. The analysis of HcNPV polyhedrin showed a little difference with 97.6% at the nucleotide level but no difference at the amino acid level when compared with that of previously reported H. cunea NPV (HycuNPV). On the other hand, iap genes showed variable differences with 89.0-99.6% nucleotide and 90.0-99.6% amino acid sequence identities. Especially, the 5' and 3' non-coding flanking sequences of iap1 gene had lower degree of identity with those of HycuNPV. Although the phylogenetic analyses using polyhedrin and iap genes showed that HcNPV is closely related with HycuNPV, we could provide that HcNPV is a novel isolate having novel gene structures.

Biochemical and enzymatic characterization for extracellular protease isolated from Cordyceps militaris cultivated on rice bran medium was investigated. C militaris produced proteolytic enzymes from 10 days after inoculation, maximum enzyme production was found at 25 days. The optimum temperature and pH of proteases production was at $25^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.0, respectively. The protease activity was observed in the four peaks (Pro-I, Pro-II, Pro-III, and Pro-IV) separated through Sephadex G-100 column chromatography. The separated protease was optimally active at $25^{\circ}C$. Optimum pH of the protease was between 7 and 8. Enzyme was also stable over at $30-80^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was highly stable in a pH range of 4-9. Protease activity was found to be slightly decreased by the addition of $Mg^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$ and $Cu^{2+}$, whereas inhibited by the addition of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Co^{2+}$ Protease activity was inhibited by protease inhibitor PMSF. On the other hand, the partially purified protease was investigated on proteolytic protease activity by zymogram gel electrophoresis using three substances (casein, gelatin and fibrin). Four active bands (F-I, FII, F-III, and F-IV) of fibrin degradation were revealed on fibrin zymogram gels. Both of F-II and FIII showed caseinolytic, fibrinolytic and gelatinolytic activities in three gels. Thermostability, pH stability, and pH-thermostability of the enzyme determined the residual fibrinolytic activity also displayed on fibrin zymogram gel. The only one enzyme (F-II) displayed over a broad range of temperature at $30-90^{\circ}C$. The FII displayed fibrinolytic activity in the pH range 3-5, but was inactivated in the range of pH 6-11. The F-I and F-III showed enzyme activity in the pH range of 6-11. In the pH-thermostability, the F-II only kept fibrinolytic activity after heating at $100^{\circ}C$ for 10, 20 and 30 min at pH 3 and pH 7, respectively. On the other hand, the F-II was retained activity until heating for 10 min under pH 11 condition. By using fibrin zymogram gel electrophoresis, extracellular fibrinolytic enzyme F-II from C. militaris showed unusual thermostable under acid and neutral conditions.

The effect of diet supplementation of Antheraea pernyi (A. pernyi) silk fibroin on the lipid metabolism and antioxidant defense status in high fat-fed mice was investigated. The animals were given normal control diet (NC group), high fat diet (HF group), or high fat diet supplemented with A. pernyi silk fibroin powder (HFS group) for 7 weeks. After the experimental period, the HF group showed significant increase in body weight, plasma and hepatic total cholesterol levels, and hepatic triglyceride concentration, and decreased activities of hepatic antioxidant enzymes relative to NC group. However, the HFS group exhibited marked reduction in body weight, plasma cholesterol and hepatic triglyceride levels, hepatic lipogenic enzyme activities, and lipid peroxidation rate, and higher high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol level, fecal triglyceride content, and antioxidant enzymes activities compared with that of HF group. These findings demonstrate that dietary feeding of A. pernyi silk fibroin could improve the lipid metabolism and antioxidant defense system via regulation of hepatic antioxidant and lipogenic enzymes activities. Hence, this silk fibroin may be beneficial as a functional biomaterial for the development of therapeutic agent against high fat diet-induced hyperlipidemia and its related diseases.

Transparency and insolubility of eardrum patch against exudates are important for otolaryngological surgery. The author prepared silk fibroin (SF) films with various concentrations and temperature and then examined solubility and conformation of SF films. SF films were transparent regardless of the various preparation conditions. Although most SF films are soluble in 1X PBS solution at $37^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, the SF film with 3.4% with $60^{\circ}C$ was insoluble. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the SF films have solid and smooth surface. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showed that the conformation of SF films was influenced by the preparation conditions including SF concentration and casting temperature. In conclusion, SF membrane with transparence and insolubility against exudates could be considered as eardrum patch resources.