First record of Microplitis docilis (Braconidae: Microgastrinae) from Iran
Paper ID : 1091-3IICE
Authors:
Parisa Abdoli *1, Ali Asghar Talebi1, Samira Farahani2
1Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran
2Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, I. R. Iran
Abstract:
The Family Braconidae is the second largest family of Hymenoptera (after of Ichneumonidae) with more than 21200 described species. The subfamily Microgastrinae is one of the most species-rich of parasitoid wasps with 81 genera and more than 2700 described species in world. The genus Microplitis Forster, 1862 is comprising about 200 described species in worldwide and 12 species were identified in Iran. The majority of the Microplitis species attack to lepipopteran larvae of the families Noctuidae, Notodontidae, Sphingidae and Erebidae. There is tremendous biological diversity within the members of this genus including solitary or gregarious and koinobiont endoparasitoids of the host larvae and pupae. In this study, the specimens of the genus Microplitis were collected from Qazvin province, using Malaise trap. Among the collected specimens from the Loshan area (3♀ in 06 Jul. 2010, at altitude of 291 meters above sea level on geographical coordinates 36°40′09.12″ N, 49°25′37.74″ E) the species Microplitis docilis Nixon, 1970 was identified. This species distributed in the Palaearctic. Diagnostic characters and geographical distribution of the species are briefly discussed. In this study, the biology and hosts of Microplitis docilis is unknown because sampling was done using Malaise trap. This species is new for the Iranian fauna and the collected specimens are deposited in the Collection of Department of Entomology, Tarbiat Modares University.
Keywords:
Key words: fauna, Parasitoid wasps, morphological characters, first record
Status : Paper Accepted (Poster Presentation)