• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.41-54
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• 2023

The blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans Van der Linden, 1820 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae), is a climate-sensitive indicator species in South Korea. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of I. elegans collected from South Korea for subsequent population genetic analysis, particularly to trace population movements in response to climate change. The 15,963 base pair (bp)-long complete mitogenome of I. elegans has typical sets of genes including a major non-coding region (the A+T-rich region), and an arrangement identical to that observed in ancestral insect species. The ATP6, ND3 and ND1 genes have the TTG start codon, which, although rare, is the canonical start codon for animal mitochondrial tRNA. The A/T content was 71.4% in protein-coding genes, 72.1% in tRNAs, 72.9% in the whole genome, 74.7% in srRNA, 75.3% in lrRNA, and 83.8% in the A+T-rich region. The A+T-rich region is unusually long (1,196 bp) and contains two subunits (192 bp and 176-165 bp), each of which is tandemly triplicated and surrounded by non-repeat sequences. Comparison of the sequence divergence among available mitogenomes of I. elegans, including the one from the current study, revealed ND2 as the most variable gene, followed by COII and COI, suggesting that ND2 should be targeted first in subsequent population-level studies. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on all available mitogenome sequences of Coenagrionidae showed a strong sister relationship between I. elegans and I. senegalensis.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.58-70
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• 2016

An investigation was carried out to study the diversity of aquatic insects, functional feeding groups (FFGs), habitat oriented groups (HOGs), and species-specific distribution in the Taean area in Korea from June to August, 2015. As a result, a total of 72 species belonging to 30 families and six orders were identified in all the investigated regions. Odonata (22 spp.: 30.56%) was the largest group in species richness followed by Coleoptera (21 spp.: 29.16%), Hemiptera (17 spp.: 23.61%) and Diptera (8 spp.: 11.11%) while for Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera, only two species (2.78%) were found. In addition, Plecoptera and Megaloptera inhabiting clean and flowing waters were not found. In the FFGs, predators (48 spp.: 66.67%) were relatively larger as represented by Odonata, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera, whereas shredders and scrapers were lower in proportion. The dominant groups of HOGs were swimmers (24 spp.: 33.33%), climbers (18 spp.: 25.0%), and sprawlers (12 spp.: 16.67%), which were characterized as aquatic insects community of island. Four species: Cybister lewisianus Sharp, Helophorus auriculatus Sharp, Agrypnia pagetana Curtis, Diplonychus esakii Miyamoto & Lee that are designated as Endangered, Near Threatened, and Vulnerable (Korean Red List) have been found to inhabitthe Taean area. Also, two species belonging to the exportable species group (Ceriagrion auranticum Fraser, Paracercion melanotum (Selys)) and one species belonging to the climate-sensitive biological indicator group (Ischnura elegans (Van der Linden)) were identified. In this study, four significant species including the Endangered are presented on the Korean distribution map based on the information in the national ecosystem survey accumulated for 7 years (2006-2012) by the Ministry of Environment.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.66-76
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• 2018

This study surveyed the species and population of dragonflies in 20 study sites in the Junam wetland in May and July 2015 to investigate the relationship between the dragonflies and the inhabited environment. We measured the environmental factors such as the area of emergent plants, the area of floating and floating-leaved plants, the area of water surface, the area of water plants, and the nearby land-use type and analyzed the relationship to the dragonfly species, population, and diversity index. We found 757 dragonflies belonging to 21 species of 6 families. The area of floating and floating-leaved plants and the area of water surface affected the species diversity. The area of floating and floating-leaved plants and the area of surface water, in particular, showed the positive correlation with the species richness and the dominance value, respectively. The area of water surface showed the negative correlations with Shannon's diversity index and evenness. Among the type of surrounding land-uses, the dry fields and orchards showed significantly lower average species richness than wetlands. Among the species, Cercion calamorum and Crocothemis servilia were positively correlated with floating and floating-leaved plants. Cercion v-nigrum and Epophthalmia elegans were positively correlated with the area of water surface, and Ischnura asiatica and Ceriagrion nipponicum were negatively correlated. The recent uncontrolled proliferation of lotus colony in the Junam wetland is likely to affect greatly the species composition of dragonflies which have a close relationship with plant species.