The National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR, President Seo Min-hwan) under the Ministry of Environment announced that, based on an analysis of the status of subtropical insects found in Korea over the past five years (2020-2024), the discovery rate of new species and unrecorded species of subtropical insects is increasing.

The NIBR has been conducting comprehensive surveys on insects in the Korean Peninsula since 2006 as part of its ‘Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project,’, and since 2020, it has been analyzing the proportion of subtropical insects among newly discovered new and unrecorded insect species in our country.

As a result, the proportion of subtropical regional insects among newly discovered new and unrecorded insect species has shown a continuous increase, with rates of △ 4% (17/425 species) in 2020, △ 4.4% (19/425 species) in 2021, △ 5% (19/380 species) in 2022, △ 6.5% (25/380 species) in 2023, and △ 10.2% (38/370 species) in 2024.

In particular, last year, 38 candidate unrecorded species inhabiting subtropical climates were discovered in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, among which 21 species, including the Macrostomion sumatranum, the Hypena perspicua, and the Mallada krakatauensis, were first con.firmed in Jeju Island.

Insects are very sensitive to temperature changes and have strong mobility, which makes their distribution changes in response to environmental factors particularly noticeable. The fact that species migrating northward to the Korean Peninsula are primarily found in Jeju Island, which is a border area between subtropical and temperate regions, is interpreted as a consequence of climate change.

NIBR President Seo Min-hwan stated, “We plan to continuously observe not only the discovery of new indigenous insect species in our country but also the occurrence of subtropical insects to provide necessary information for future policy development.”

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