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The subfamily Microgastrinae Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea, Braconidae) is a challenging and the most diverse groups of braconids that has significant importance in biological control programs. They are koinobiont endoparasitoids of lepidopteran larvae and generally attack and develop in early instars and exit from the host larvae to pupate. In current paper, the findings of primary taxonomic investigations on these valuable biocontrol agents is presented and for each genus, the general habitus of a represented species is illustrated. Also, the proportion of known hosts for some genera was provided. The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary information of the Microgastrinae in Iran to serve as a starting point for future studies on the group and to encourage further study of more species in other regions of Iran, on various aspects of taxonomic, ecological, host associations, conservation, DNA barcoding and bio-control.

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Cataglyphis nodus (Brullé) is one of the fairly known ants of Iran. Here, we present new data on a morphotype from Chaharmahal-o Bakhtiari province (Cheri - Mavarz) closely related to C. nodus. The examined specimens were morphologically had very similar characters with the original description of C. nodus. In order to explore the phylogenetic position of Iranian specimens, a fragment of the mitochondrial Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI) was used. The Iranian specimens belong to a clade containing C. holgerseni Collingwood & Agosti; C. niger (André), C. nodus and C. savignyi (Dufour). Surprisingly, it was clustered with C. holgerseni, indicating existence of a possibly undescribed species. The final taxonomic conclusion and description of the possible new species postponed until examination of the type specimens of both C. nodus and C. holgerseni.