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Trissolcus vassilievi (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) is one of the most important egg parasitoids of the common sunn pest (CSP), Eurygaster integriceps Puton (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) in Iran. In this study, the fitness of two populations of T. vassilievi was studied on two populations of hosts in terms of life history parameters. Two populations of T. vassilievi were selected: 1/ Tabriz (as a temperate area), and 2/ Varamin (as a subtropical area), as well as for CSP. Moreover, regarding that outcrossing between populations can produce progeny with superior characteristics, the progeny of reciprocal crosses between original populations also were examined on a single host. The crosses between the two populations caused 13.9-18.5% higher net fecundity than maternal populations which suggests fecundity to be a function of maternal phenotype. The intrinsic rate of increase showed minor differences among treatments which varied between 0.291±0.003 to 0.305±0.003. The partial advantage of the Varamin wasps over the Tabriz ones and the crosses over the original populations was obvious. Such differences may be used to obtain more efficient parasitoids in augmentation programs.
 

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Braconidae (Hymenoptera) communities at high altitudes in alfalfa fields of Kerman province (Iran) were analyzed. The communities were sampled by sweep netting in 2014 and 2015. Samples were taken from three altitudinal transects: 1900–2300 m, 2400–2700 m and 2800–3100 m. A total of 1773 braconid specimens belonging to seven subfamilies were collected. Alpha, beta and gamma diversities were analyzed. The samples from 1900–2300 m and from2400–2700 m showed similar diversity, but from 2800-3100 m had the highest number of specimens and differed considerably in diversity.

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The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) is one of the most important pests of pea throughout the world.Host stage preference under choice and no-choice tests and age-specific functional response of Praon volucre (Haliday) parasitizing A. pisum were investigated. The experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions at 25 ± 1 °C, 60 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 14: 10 h (L: D). Functional response of P. volucre was evaluated in adult lifetime at seven host densities (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128). Praon volucre strongly preferred to oviposit into first and second instar nymphs in both choice and no-choice conditions. Parameter estimation of logistic regression revealed type III functional response for P. volucre in first and second days and type II from third to the end of parasitoid lifetime. The handling time (T_h) and searching efficiency (a or b) were estimated using the Rogers equation. The shortest and longest handling times were at fourth day (T_h = 0.19 ± 0.04) and 8^th day (T_h = 0.94 ± 0.15), respectively. The highest searching efficiency (a) was 0.048 ± 0.007 h^-1 on third day and lowest searching efficiency was observed at the end of parasitoid lifetime (6^th day-8^th days). The maximum attack rate ranged from 126.31 nymphs/24 h on fourth day to 25.53 nymphs/24 h on 8^th day. The results of this study revealed that the age of adult parasitoid can change the functional response from type III to type II, indicating that this factor may contribute to stabilization of parasitoid–prey dynamics.

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This study was based on examination of specimens of the family Braconidae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea) deposited in Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum. Totally thirteen  species from eleven genera and seven subfamilies, including Braconinae (One genus – One species), Cardiochilinae (1-1), Doryctinae (1-4), Macrocernrinae (1-2) , Opiinae (2-2), Rhyssalinae (1-1), Rogadinae (1-2) were identified, of which six species including Biosteres spinaciaeformis Fischer, 1971, Heterospilus rubicola Fischer,1968, Utetes fulvicollis (Thomson, 1895), Aleiodes arcticus (Thomson, 1892), Macrocentrus turkestanicus (Telenga, 1950) and  Rhyssalus longicaudis (Tobias & Belokobylskij, 1981) are new records for the Iranian braconid founa.

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Habrobracon hebetor Say is an idiobiont and gregarious larval ectoparasitoid of many moths. In this study, lethal and sublethal effects of Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Carum carvi and Heracleum persicum essential oils on the demographic parameters of H. hebetor were assessed at 26 ± 2 °C, 60 ± 5% RH, and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L: D) h. Essential oils were obtained from these plants by hydro-distillation method using a Clevenger apparatus. The chemical constituents of essential oils were detected by Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS). 250ml Glass vials were used for the fumigant toxicity experiments. In order to assess the sublethal effects, adult wasps were exposed to an LC₂₅ of each essential oil and then the demographic parameters of live parasitoid wasps were studied. Fumigant toxicity with adults indicated that the lethal concentration (LC₅₀) values of the above essential oils against H. hebetor females were 1.116, 0.34 and 3.416μl/l air, respectively. Chemical analysis by GC-MS displayed o-Cymene (15.11%), Carvone (55.8%) and Hexyl butyrate (41.78%) were main constituents of the essential oils of E. camaldulensis, C. carvi and H. persicum, respectively. The results showed that the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net reproductive rate (R₀) and gross reproductive rate (GRR) were significantly affected by the essential oils. The highest and the lowest r values were 0.226 and 0.130 day^-1 in control and C. carvi-treated insects, respectively. According to these results, essential oils have suitable potential for the integrated management of stored product pests.

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Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an important cucumber pest especially in greenhouse. The efficacy of simultaneous release of generalist predator, Orius albidipennis Reuter (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) and a specialist parasitic wasp, Aphidius colemani Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), was evaluated in laboratory conditions against the pest. For this purpose, investigations were carried out on preference of the predator between parasitized and non-parasitized aphids. In addition, production of volatile infochemicals between the natural enemies (NEs) was studied by olfactometry trials. In another part of this research, systemic production of volatile synomone by the infested cucumber plants for attraction of each NE was examined by the olfactometry tests. Results revealed that O. albidipennis had no obvious preference to either the parasitized or non-parasitized aphids, while both NEs were significantly attracted to volatiles emitted from infested host plants. Our findings revealed that each of the NEs avoided odors which indicated the presence of another intraguild competitor. The documented facts from the entire study reveal that the NEs are good biocontrol agents against A. gossypii on cucumber, but their avoidance from each other makes simultaneous release of the predator and parasitic wasps unsuitable for biological control of this aphid.
 
 
 

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Two species of the genus Foenatopus Smith, 1846 (Hym.: Stephanidae), were collected from West-Azarbaijan province, the northwest Iran; Foenatopus prousti Aguiar & Turrisi, 2010 and F. turcomanorum (Semenov, 1891). These species belong to the bimaculate group of this genus. Foenatopus turcomanorum is a new record for Iran. Their morphological characters and distribution are provided. The Iranian species of the bimaculate group of Foenatopus are summarized and tabulated.


 

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All species in the genus Lysiphlebus Förster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Aphidiinae) are solitary endoparasitoids of aphids, which are one of the most difficult and unknown taxonomic groups to identify. A pair of species-specific primers as a molecular marker was designed to identify the most abundant and important aphid parasitoid wasp, L. fabarum Marshall, collected from Guilan province (Iran). This primer pair, which produces a 148 bp fragment length, was developed for L. fabarum by using the ATPase 6 gene region of mitochondrial DNA. The lower detection limit to amplify DNA of L. fabarum in a singleplex PCR was determined to be 72 pg of parasitoid DNA/µl PCR which was enough to detect this parasitoid in early life stages within its host. The L. fabarum eggs cannot be detected within Aphis fabae Scopoli (Hemiptera: Aphididae) earlier than 12 hours after oviposition. A pair of species specific primers designed for L. fabarum can be used to monitor the wasp populations under field conditions.