A taxonomic review of the genus Copelatus Erichson (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) in Korea is presented. In the present study, five species of Copelatus are recognized from Korea, including one unrecorded species, C. kammuriensis. We provide a key to the Korean species of Copelatus, diagnosis of one unrecorded species, habitus photographs, scanning electron micrographs of the elytron, and illustrations of the aedeagus.

In Korea, the centipede called “Wang‐ji‐ne” or “O‐gong” is used as an important medicinal resource. This centipede has been known as Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans Koch 1878. Recent studies have assessed its taxonomic treatment in several geographical populations from China, Japan and Taiwan, but not Korea. We therefore attempted to assess exact species status for the Korean population of this subspecies using both morphological and DNA barcode methods. The result inferred from DNA barcoding showed that the Korean population is S. mutilans explicitly separated from S. subspinipes. Within S. mutilans, the Korean population is morphologically identical and genetically closer to the Chinese population rather than island populations of Japan and Taiwan. Particularly, the mainland populations from Korea and China share six haplotypes from 17 despite being far apart geographically.

No abstract