S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 45/2. (Budapest, 1984)

FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK XLV. 2 1984 p. 143-155 Coccinellinae and Epilachninae from North Korea (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) By O. MERKL (Received May 25, 1984) Abstract: Twenty-four species of Coccinellinae and 1 species of Epilachninae are reported from the People's Democratic Republic of Korea. Twelve species are thought to be new to the fauna of the country, of which the occurrence of Adalia bipunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) is doubtful. Whereas the coccinellid fauna of Japan and the Soviet Far East is quite sufficiently known, scarcely anything has been reported on the ladybirds of the Korean Peninsula. In his short paper, CHTIJO (1940 b) reported some Korean localities for 5 species. In a comprehensive list of North Korean Insects published recently, CHU (1969) included 17 species of Coccinellidae. Furthermore, a catalogue of South Korean beetles has been compiled (CHO, P. S. 1957: A systematic Catalogue of Korean Coleoptera. Seoul, 166 pp.), in which 20 coccinellid species are listed. I have not seen this catalogue, however, according to SASAJI (1970), "These may be undoubtedly less than one fifth of the total expected number of the Korean fauna". Thus, I venture to say that the species listed in this work belong to the most common ones. In addition to the above-mentioned publications, a number of papers and monographs contain simple one-word information about Korean occurrences of some coccinellids (CHUJO 1940 a; IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN 1979, 1981, 1982; KAMIYA 1965; KATAKURA 1981; KORSCHEFSKY 1931, 1932; MADER 1926-37; SASAJI 1981, 1982; SASAJI, YAHARA and SAITO 1975); the species established hereafter as new to the fauna of Korea are given with reference to the data of these works. Within the framework of a cultural interstate agreement between the Korean and the Hungarian Academies of Sciences, eight zoological expeditions have so far been made by the Hungarian Natural History Museum to the People' s Democratic Republic of Korea, each of which yielded a number af coccinellids. This contribution is concerned with 25 species of two subfamilies: Coccinellinae and Epilachninae. A total of 1936 specimens have been examined but Harmónia axyridis and Propyl ea japonic a compose the great majority. Some of the specimens had previously been identified by R. BIELAWSKI, S.M. IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN and L. MADER but all the identifications were critically revised. Members of the remaining subfamilies are very sparsely or monotonously represented in the collected material, hence, it is a future task to collect more examples for a « Zoological Collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea, No. 73.