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Habrobracon hebetor Say (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is one of the parasitoids which is used against various lepidopteran insect pests in Iran. Due to extensive application of chemical pesticides in farms, studying their side effects on natural enemies is necessary in order to evaluate their probable detrimental effects, in case of application in IPM programs. In this study, side-effects of two prevalent insecticides, flubendiamide and azadirachtin, on functional response of H. hebetor to different densities of 5th instar larvae of Ephestia kuehniella Zeller were evaluated in laboratory conditions. Host densities of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 were exposed to randomly selected treated females of H. hebetor in Petri dishes. Ten replications were considered for each host density. The control was treated with water. The results revealed a type ΙΙ response for all treatments. This study showed that flubendiamide and azadirachtin had the lowest (0.269h) and highest values (1.822h) of handling times, respectively. Also, the highest and lowest values of searching efficiency were observed in the flubendiamide (0.188h–1) and azadirachtin (0.0396 h–1) treated wasps, respectively. According to the results of the study, flubendiamide may be more compatible with biological control agent in IPM programs.

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The Sri Lankan species, Methocha ubiquita Krombein, 1982 is newly reported for the fauna of India. Differential characters, figures, distribution map and comparisons of the newly recorded species with original description of type material are provided.

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Two chalcidoid parasitic wasps (Hym.: Chalcidoidea) of two lepidopterous pests on willow trees, Salix spp., were collected in Tehran and Alborz provinces, Iran. Ooencyrtus populicola Myartseva, 1995 (Hym.: Encyrtidae) and Colpoclypeus florus (Walker, 1938) (Hym.: Eulophidae) were reared on Ceruravinula (L., 1758) (Lep.: Notodontidae) and Nycteola asiatica (Krulikovsky, 1904) (Lep.: Nolidae), respectively. Ooencyrtus populicola is a parasitoid of egg and C. florus is an ectoparasitoid of larval stage. Ooencyrtus populicola is a new record for Iran, but C. florus was previously reported as a parasitoid of an unknown leaf-roller larva.


 

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Augmentative release of native natural enemies is a prominent strategy for suppression of crop pests. Intrinsic differences among populations of natural enemies may affect their efficiency in pest management programs. We characterized life history traits of 13 climatically and geographically isolated populations of Habrobracon hebetor Say (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from different regions of Iran to assess their suitability for biological control of noctuid moths. All experiments were performed at 25±1°C, 65±5 RH and 16:8 (L:D) hours photoperiod regime. Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) was used as a laboratory host. Our results revealed significant variation in female longevity, paralysis and parasitism rate, sex ratio, reproductive rate and host allocation among different H. hebetor populations tested. The highest number of offspring (124.2) and parasitized larvae (160.1) were observed in Bandar Lengeh and the lowest ones was observed in Urmia and Jiroft, respectively (3.4 and 9.3 for Urmia and 3.1 and 10.1 for Jiroft). Also, the wasps of Bandar Lengeh paralyzed more than 95% of the introduced host larvae. The longest female longevity and male production (21.3 days and 80.1, respectively) were in Bandar Abbas and Bandar Lengeh (21.3 days and 80, respectively), while the lowest ones were in Dehloran (12.9 days and 40.2, respectively). Gorgan population deployed the highest number of Ephestia kuehniella larvae in foraging behavior test. These results show considerable variation in the life history traits of various populations of H. hebetor, which may affect performance of these populations under field condition.