Dokdo, a group of islands near the East Coast of South Korea, comprises 89 small islands. These volcanic islands were created by an eruption that also led to the formation of the Ulleungdo Islands (located in the East Sea), which are approximately 87.525 km away from Dokdo. Dokdo is important for geopolitical reasons; however, because of certain barriers to investigation, such as weather and time constraints, knowledge of its insect fauna is limited compared to that of Ulleungdo. Until 2017, insect fauna on Dokdo included 10 orders, 74 families, 165 species and 23 undetermined species; subsequently, from 2018 to 2019, we discovered 23 previously unrecorded species and three undetermined species via an insect survey. As per our recent study, the database of insect species on Dokdo has been expanded to 10 orders, 81 families, 188 species and 23 undetermined species. This database has been registered in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; www.GBIF.org) and is the first record for insect fauna on Dokdo.

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The field study was undertaken to examine the potential for adverse effects of transgenic soybean expressing bioactive human epidermal growth factor (with tolerance to the herbicide glufosinate, PPT) on the abundance and diversity of plant‐dwelling arthropods by comparing with those of a non‐GM parental cultivar, Gwangan soybean. Field surveys of soybean fields were carried out over two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017 at Ochang and Jeonju, Korea. The number of captured individuals associated with either of EGF and Gwangan soybean plants increased in 2017 compared with 2016 in both Ochang and Jeonju. During the survey period, the diversity and richness of the occurred insects and arachnids increased, dominance decreased, and the evenness of the insects remained static. The insects of Hymenoptera Order occurred most often comprised 25.4% of total captured insect pests. On the contrary, natural enemy from Hymenoptera Order and other insects from Diptera Order occurred more frequently (29.9% and 19.0%, respectively) in both the survey regions during the study periods. The score from PROXSCAL multidimensional scaling using combined data showed that the occurrence of insects and arachnids were separated due to their cultivation regions and years, irrespective of soybean cultivars. Consequently, the results indicated that there happened no notable change in the composition of arthropod communities in soybean agroecosystem due to GM event in soybean expressing EGF.

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