a contribution to the encarsia and ......a contribution to the encarsia and eretmocerus...

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Arch. Biol. Sci., Belgrade, 63 (3), 867-878, 2011 DOI:10.2298/ABS1103867G 867 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENCARSIA AND ERETMOCERUS (HYMENOPTERA: APHELINIDAE) SPECIES FROM THE ARASBARAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND VICINITY, NORTHWESTERN IRAN HASSAN GHAHARI 1 , JIAN HUANG 2 and SHAABAN ABD-RABOU 3 1 Department of Entomology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, 14174 Tehran, Iran 2 Plant Protection College, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, PR China 3 Plant Protection Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, 12311 Dokki-Giza, Egypt Abstract - e fauna of the Encarsia and Eretmocerus species (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae) from Arasbaran and its vicinity (Northwestern Iran) is studied in this paper. A total of 16 Encarsia species, including E. acaudaleyrodis Hayat, E. aleurochitonis (Mercet), E. aurantii (Howard), E. azimi Hayat, E. berlesei (Howard), E. citrina (Craw), E. elegans (Masi), E. elongata (Dozier), E. fasciata (Malenotti), E. formosa Gahan, E. inaron (Walker), E. lounsburyi (Berlese and Paoli), E. lutea (Masi), E. luteola Howard, E. mineoi Viggiani, E. perniciosi (Tower), and 4 Eretmocerus species (Eretmocerus cadabae Viggiani, Eretmocerus mundus Mercet, Eretmocerus nikolskajae Myartseva, Eretmocerus serius Silvestre) were col- lected. Key words: Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae, Encarsia, Eretmocerus, Arasbaran, Northwestern Iran UDC 595.79(55-16) INTRODUCTION e genus Encarsia Foerster (Chalcidoidea: Aphe- linidae) contains a diverse and cosmopolitan group of species that are usually parasitic on Aleyrodidae (whiteflies), Diaspididae (armored scales), Aphidoi- dea (aphids) or themselves (as autoparasitoids). A few species are parasitoids of the eggs of Lepidoptera (Polaszek, 1991; Huang and Polaszek, 1998). e ge- nus Encarsia represents one of the most important parasitic groups used in biological control, and vari- ous species are currently being collected as part of intensive foreign exploration efforts to search for parasites of whiteflies of the genus Bemisia (Heraty and Polaszek, 2000). Eretmocerus Haldeman species are solitary, primary parasites. Eggs are deposited under the venter of whitefly larvae. e egg hatches from beneath the whitefly and the wasp larva enters the hosts through an incision made in the venter of the whitefly. Eretmocerus species attack many genera of whiteflies in the subfamily Aleyrodinae including various important pest species, and have been used effectively in several biological control programs (Rose and De Bach, 1991-92; Rose and Zolnerowich, 1997; Ghahari, 1999); no Eretmocerus species have yet been reported to attack whiteflies belonging to the subfamily Aleurodicinae. Arasbaran is an important region in the East Azerbaijan province. is biosphere reserve is situ- ated in the north of Iran at the border with Arme- nia and Azerbaijan and belongs to the Caucasus Ira- nian Highlands. In between the Caspian, Caucasus and Mediterranean region, the area has mountains up to 2,200 meters, including high alpine meadows, semi-arid steppes, rangelands and forests, rivers

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Page 1: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENCARSIA AND ......A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENCARSIA AND ERETMOCERUS (HYMENOPTERA: APHELINIDAE) SPECIES FROM THE ARASBARAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND VICINITY, NORTHWESTERN

Arch. Biol. Sci., Belgrade, 63 (3), 867-878, 2011 DOI:10.2298/ABS1103867G

867

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENCARSIA AND ERETMOCERUS (HYMENOPTERA: APHELINIDAE) SPECIES FROM THE ARASBARAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND VICINITY,

NORTHWESTERN IRAN

HASSAN GHAHARI1, JIAN HUANG2 and SHAABAN ABD-RABOU3

1 Department of Entomology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, 14174 Tehran, Iran 2 Plant Protection College, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, PR China

3Plant Protection Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, 12311 Dokki-Giza, Egypt

Abstract - The fauna of the Encarsia and Eretmocerus species (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae) from Arasbaran and its vicinity (Northwestern Iran) is studied in this paper. A total of 16 Encarsia species, including E. acaudaleyrodis Hayat, E. aleurochitonis (Mercet), E. aurantii (Howard), E. azimi Hayat, E. berlesei (Howard), E. citrina (Craw), E. elegans (Masi), E. elongata (Dozier), E. fasciata (Malenotti), E. formosa Gahan, E. inaron (Walker), E. lounsburyi (Berlese and Paoli), E. lutea (Masi), E. luteola Howard, E. mineoi Viggiani, E. perniciosi (Tower), and 4 Eretmocerus species (Eretmocerus cadabae Viggiani, Eretmocerus mundus Mercet, Eretmocerus nikolskajae Myartseva, Eretmocerus serius Silvestre) were col-lected.

Key words: Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae, Encarsia, Eretmocerus, Arasbaran, Northwestern Iran

UDC 595.79(55-16)

INTRODUCTION

The genus Encarsia Foerster (Chalcidoidea: Aphe-linidae) contains a diverse and cosmopolitan group of species that are usually parasitic on Aleyrodidae (whiteflies), Diaspididae (armored scales), Aphidoi-dea (aphids) or themselves (as autoparasitoids). A few species are parasitoids of the eggs of Lepidoptera (Polaszek, 1991; Huang and Polaszek, 1998). The ge-nus Encarsia represents one of the most important parasitic groups used in biological control, and vari-ous species are currently being collected as part of intensive foreign exploration efforts to search for parasites of whiteflies of the genus Bemisia (Heraty and Polaszek, 2000). Eretmocerus Haldeman species are solitary, primary parasites. Eggs are deposited under the venter of whitefly larvae. The egg hatches from beneath the whitefly and the wasp larva enters

the hosts through an incision made in the venter of the whitefly. Eretmocerus species attack many genera of whiteflies in the subfamily Aleyrodinae including various important pest species, and have been used effectively in several biological control programs (Rose and De Bach, 1991-92; Rose and Zolnerowich, 1997; Ghahari, 1999); no Eretmocerus species have yet been reported to attack whiteflies belonging to the subfamily Aleurodicinae.

Arasbaran is an important region in the East Azerbaijan province. This biosphere reserve is situ-ated in the north of Iran at the border with Arme-nia and Azerbaijan and belongs to the Caucasus Ira-nian Highlands. In between the Caspian, Caucasus and Mediterranean region, the area has mountains up to 2,200 meters, including high alpine meadows, semi-arid steppes, rangelands and forests, rivers

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868 H. GHAHRI ET AL.

and springs. The location of Arasbaran is 38°40’ to 39°08’N; 46°39’ to 47°02’E and its elevation (meters above sea level) is +250 to +2,887.

Iranian Encarsia and Eretmocerus fauna has been studied rather well (see Ghahari, 1999; Gha-hari and Hatami, 2000; Abd-Rabou and Ghahari, 2004; Abd-Rabou et al., 2005a, b; Ghahari et al., 2006; Sakenin et al., 2006; Abd-Rabou and Ghahari, 2007). In this paper, some regions of northwestern Iran were sampled and the identified specimens are given.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was mainly based on material collected from different part of Arasbaran and its vicin-ity (Northwestern Iran). Each sample was given a unique code number and the host plant, host white-fly species, date and location were noted. Nymphs of the parasitized hosts were kept in emergence chambers and the parasitoids were transferred to 75% ethanol, where they remained at laboratory temperature until further examination. The white-flies were identified to species level using the fourth instar pupal case from which the parasitoid had emerged. All the specimens used in this study were slide mounted as described by Noyes (1982) with the following modifications: specimens were placed in 10% KOH for 5-8 min and incubated at 70°C us-ing a block heater. The samplings were conducted in 11 localities from the East Azerbaijan province (Abshahmad, Ahar, Aras boundary, Aynalo, Ho-rand, Jolfa, Kaleybar, Khodafarin, Khomarloo, Maragheh and Tabriz) and 5 localities from the West Azerbaijan province (Khoy, Maco, Ourmieh, Oshnavieh and Piranshahr). In this paper, the clas-sification, nomenclature, host and distributional data and species group of Encarsia and Eretmocerus suggested by Heraty et al. (2007) and Evans (2007) have been followed.

RESULTS

A total of 16 species of Encarsia and 4 species of Eretmocerus were collected from Arasbaran and its

vicinity in northwestern Iran. The list of species with hosts and distributional data are given below.

List of Encarsia species

Encarsia acaudaleyrodis Hayat, 1976

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ma-ragheh, 2♀, ex Acaudaleyrodes rachipora on Ziziphus spina-christi (Rhamnaceae), August 2006. West Az-erbaijan province: Ourmieh, 3♀, 1♂, ex Acaudaley-rodes rachipora Singh on Morus alba (Moraceae), July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 2♀, 2♂, ex Tetraleurodes hederae Goux on Hedera helix (Araleaceae), September 2007.

Distribution outside Iran: Spain (Canary Islands), Egypt, India.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Acaudaleyrodes rachipora (Singh) [= Acaudaleyrodes citri (Priesner and Hosny)], Tet-raleurodes leguminicola Bink, Bemisia tabaci (Gen-nadius).

Species group: parvella-group.

Comments: E. acaudaleyrodis is very similar to E. mineoi Viggiani, but in the latter species the body is completely yellow except for dark clypeus; flagellar segments longer; middle tibial spur half the length of basitarsus; ovipositor at most slightly longer (1.12 times) than middle tibia, but in E. acaudaleyrodis 1.26 times as long as the mid tibia. The extreme simi-larity of E. acaudaleyrodis and E. mineoi suggests that these two species are probably sympatric species. Two other species, E. americana (De Bach and Rose) and E. basicincta Gahan, are also close to E. acauda-leyrodis, but the morphological differences of these species have been given by Hayat (1998).

Encarsia aleurochitonis (Mercet, 1931)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Maco, 1♀, 1♂, ex Aleurochiton pseudoplatani Visnya on Eunymus japonicus (Celasteraceae), June 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Kaleybar, 1♀, ex Aleurochiton

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aceris Modeer on Acer cappadocicum (Aceraceae), August 2006.

Distribution outside Iran: Georgia, Russia and Turkmenistan, Moldavia.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Aleurochiton spp. (see com-ments).

Species group: lahorensis-group (= E. perflava-group).

Comments: This species was raised from A. ac-eris in Russia, Moldavia and Georgia, from A. aceri-nus Haupt in Moldavia and from A. pseudoplatani in Turkmenia. The antenna of the female is variable with respect to the relative length of the pedicel and the first two funicular segments. One of the most im-portant characteristics for identification of E. aleuro-chitonis is the presence of 6-7 setae at the fore wing base under the submarginal vein.

Encarsia aurantii (Howard, 1894)

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Aras boundary, 2♀, ex A. orientalis on Jasminum fruticans (Oleaceae), September 2006. East Azerbaijan prov-ince: Horand, 1♀, ex A. orientalis on Jasminum sp. (Oleaceae), October 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 2♀, ex Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell) on Citrus sp. (Rutaceae), July 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 1♀, ex Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead) on Citrus sp. (Rutaceae), September 2007.

Distribution outside Iran: virtually cosmopoli-tan.

Host: Diaspididae: Parlatoria olea Colvee, Lepi-dosaphes gloverii Packard, and Aonidiella citrina (Coquillet). Other hosts recorded: Aonidiella auran-tii (Maskell), Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead), Aoni-domytilus espinosai (Porter), Aspidiotus destructor Si-gnoret, Aspidotus hederae Vallot, Chrysomphalus ao-nidum (L.), Chrysomphalus dictyospermi (Morgan), Chrysomphalus ficus Ashmead, Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret), Hemiberlesia rapax (Comstock), Lepi-

dosaphes beckii (Newman), Lepidosaphes newsteadi Sulc, Leucaspis japonica Cockerell, Lingdingaspis fusca (Maskell), Melanaspis obscura (Comstock), Pinnaspis strachani (Cooley), Quadraspidiotus os-treaeformis (Curtis), Quadraspidiotus perniciosus Comstock.

Species group: aurantii-group sensu.

Encarsia azimi Hayat, 1980

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ab-shahmad, 1♀, ex Bemisia confusa Danzig on Glycyr-rhiza glabra (Legominosae), June 2006. East Azerba-ijan province: Aynalo, 2♀, ex Bemisia confusa Danzig on Glycyrrhiza glabra (Legominosae), June 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 1♀, ex Bemisia ta-baci on Gossypium hirsutum (Malvaceae), July 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Piranshahr, 2♀, ex Bemi-sia tabaci on Hibiscus esculentum (Leguminosae), July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khomarloo, 3♀, ex Bemisia afer (Priesner and Hosny) on Urtica dioica (Urticaceae), September 2007. East Azerbai-jan province: Ahar, 4♀, ex Bemisia tabaci on Rosa hemisphaerica (Rosaceae), September 2007. East Az-erbaijan province: Kaleybar, 2♀, ex Bemisia tabaci on Lycopersicum esculentum (Solanaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Jolfa, 1♀, ex Bemisia taba-ci on Hibiscus esculentum (Leguminosae), September 2009.

Distribution outside Iran: Australia, India, Japan, Pakistan, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, Fujian.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Alurolobus rhododendri (Takahashi), Dialeurodes fici, Dialeurodes piperis Takahashi, Odontaleyrodes rhododendri (Taka-hashi), Parabemisia myricae (Kuwana); Bemisia ta-baci Genn.; Rhachisphora fici (Takahashi) (recorded as Dialeurodes citri), Lipaleyrodes sp, Thysanoptera: Thripidae: [?]Thrips tabaci.

Species group: inaron-group.

Comments: E. azimi is close to E. margariven-tris (Mercet), but can be distinguished from it by

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870 H. GHAHRI ET AL.

the characteristic sculpture of the mesosoma, longer third valvulae and several characters of the males. E. reticulata Rivney (in Rivney and Gerling, 1987) may be another synonym of E. azimi, but a final opinion is deferred for further study of the types (Hayat, 1998). Unfortunately, the type material of E. reticulata ap-pears to be lost. On the basis of Schmidt et al. (2001), the specimens from different regions of Australia dif-fered genetically. The presence of genetic difference might indicate the existence of more than one spe-cies.

E. azimi is an oligophagous parasitoid in differ-ent regions of Iran especially in north, and it parasit-izes several hosts including B. tabaci, B. confusa and B. afer. The reared parasitoids from these hosts in-dicated morphological and coloration variations, as the head capsule width of B. confusa is smaller than that of B. tabaci and also the latter species is smaller than B. afer. Also, the mesosoma is pale yellow in the populations of B. confusa, but brown in materials from B. tabaci and B. afer.

Encarsia berlesei (Howard, 1906)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Oshnavieh, 4♀, ex Pseudolecaspis pentagona (Targio-nii) on Morus nigra (Moraceae), 3.vii.2006. West Az-erbaijan province: Maco, 1♀, ex Pseudolecaspis pen-tagona (Targionii) on Jasminum fruticans (Oleaceae), 17.vii.2006. East Azerbaijan province: Maragheh, 2♀, ex Chrysomphalus dictyospermi Morgan on Salix alba (Salicaceae), August 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Abshahmad, 3♀, ex Pseudolecaspis pentagona (Tar-gionii) on Citrus sinensis (Rutaceae), April 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Tabriz, 3♀, ex Chrysomphalus dictyospermi Morgan on Cydonia oblonga and Ilex spinigera September 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: China, Japan, Sri Lan-ka, Europe, USSR, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, USA; virtually cosmopolitan.

Host: Diaspididae: Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Targionii), Melanaspis obscurus (Comstock), Pin-naspis minor (Maskell), Pinnaspis strachani Cooley.

Species group: berlesi group sensu.

Encarsia citrina (Craw, 1891)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Khoy, 2♀, ex Lepidosaphes beckii on Prosopis spicigera, Sep-tember 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 2♀, ex Parlatoria pergandii Comstock on Cerasus avium, July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 2♀, ex Pinnaspis aspidistrae Signoret on Chamaerops sp., July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khomarloo, 1♀, ex Leucaspis pusilla Loew on pinus sp., Septem-ber 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 3♀, ex Leucaspis riccae Targ.-Tozz. on Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Kaleybar, 1♀, ex Aonidiella citrina (Co-quillett) on Camellia sp. (Teaceae), August 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: cosmopolitan.

Host: Diaspididae: Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), Aonidiella citrina (Coquillett), Aonidiella lauri Bouche, Aonidiella taxus Leonardi, Aspidiotus de-structor Signoret, Aspidiotus nerii Bouche, Aulacaspis rosae Bouche, Aulacaspis tubercularis, Carulaspis vis-ci Schrank, Chionaspis berlesi Leonardi, Chionaspis lepineyi Balachowsky, Chrysomphalus aonidum (L.), (= Chrysomphalus ficus Ashmead), Chrysomphalus dictyospermi Morgan, Coccus hesperidium, Lepidosa-phes pallidula (Williams), Cornuaspis (= Lepidosa-phes) bekii (Newman), Cornuaspis gloverii (Pack-ard), Diaspidiotus alni Marchal, Diaspidiutus ancylus Putnam, Diaspidiotus gigas Thiem and Gernck, Di-aspidiotus ostreaeformis Curtis, Diaspidiotus pru-norum Laing, Diaspidiotus pyri Licht, Diaspidiotus perniciosus Comstock, Diaspidiotus zonatus (Frau-enfeld) (= hungaricus Kosztarab), Diaspis boisduvalii Signoret, Diaspis bromeliae Kerner, Diaspis colypter-oides Costa, Diaspis echinocactii Bouche, Dynaspidi-otus britannicus Newstead, Dynaspidiotus californica (Coleman), Fiorinia fioriniae Targioni, Furchadiaspis zamiae Morgan, Hemiberlesia cyanophylii Signo-ret, Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret), Hemiberlesia palmae Morgan, Hemiberlesia pitysophila Takagi, Hemiberlesia rapax Comstock, Kuwanaspis bambusae Kuwana, Kuwanaspis pseudoleucaspis Kuwana, Lepi-

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dosaphes pallida Green, Lepidosaphes pinnaeformis (Bouche), Leucaspis pusilla Loew, Leucaspis signoreti Targioni, Lindingaspis rossi Maskell, Lopholeucaspis japonica Cockerell, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Tar-gioni), Lepidosaphes ulmi L., Melanaspis terebricosa Comstock, Odonaspis secreta Cockerell, Parlatoria olea Colvee, Parlatoria pergandii Comstock, Parlato-ria ziziphi (Lucas), Phenacaspis pinifoliae Fitch, Pin-naspis aspidistrae Signoret, Pinnaspis buxi Bouche, Pinnaspis strachani Cooley, Pseudaonidia duplex Cockerell, Pseudaonidia paeoniae Cockerell, Selena-spidus articulatus (Morgan), Unaspis evonymi Com-stock, Unaspis yanonensis (Kuwana), Lepidosaphes tapleyi Williams, Quadraspidiotus perniciosus Com-stock; Aleyrodidae: Aleurotrachelus michelia Taka-hashi.

Species group: citrina group.

Comment: E. citrina shows morphological vari-ations especially in the relative dimensions of anten-nal segments. The difference in morphological char-acteristics is probably a result of host variation.

Encarsia elegans Masi, 1911

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ho-rand, Abshahmad, 4♀, ex Aleurolobus niloticus Pries-ner and Hosny on Euphorbia glomerifera (Euphor-biaceae), October 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Piranshahr, 1♀, ex Siphoninus immaculatus (Heeger) on Hedera helix (Araliaceae), July 2007. East Azerba-ijan province: Tabriz, 3♀, 2♂, ex A. niloticus on Ama-ranthus blitoides (Amaranthaceae), September 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: China, Egypt, Italy Taiwan, Pakistan, India.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Aleurolobus niloticus Priesner and Hosny (= A. marlatti Quaintance), Aleurolobus olivinus (Silvestri), Aleurolobus rhododendri Taka-hashi (Huang and Polaszek, 1998), Siphoninus sp.; Diaspididae: [?]Aonidiella aurantii on Ficus glomer-ata, [?]Chloropulvinaria sp.

Species group: elegans group.

Comment: Aleurolobus olivinus is newly record-ed as the host of E. elegans. E. elegans is a widespread species in the old world (Polaszek et al., 1999).

Encarsia elongata (Dozier, 1937)

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ab-shahmad, 1♀, ex Chrysomphalus aonidum (L.) on Althea officinalis (Malvaceae), June 2006. East Az-erbaijan province: Khodafarin, 3♀, ex Chrysompha-lus aonidum on Euphorbia cyathophora (Euphor-biaceae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Jolfa, 2♀, ex Chrysomphalus dictyospermi Morgan on Lanthana camara (Verbenaceae), September 2009.

Distribution outside Iran: India, Taiwan, USA, Puerto Rico Spain, Italy, China.

Host: Diaspididae: Aonidiella aurantii, Chrysom-phalus aonidium, Cornuaspis beckii, Cornuaspis glov-erii, Fiorinia theae, Parlatoria ziziphi.

Species group: aurantii group.

Encarsia fasciata (Malenotti, 1917)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Maco, 1♀, ex C. dictyospermi on Malus sp., June 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Khoy, 2♀, ex Chrysumphalus dictyospermi (Morgan) on Laurus nobilis, Septem-ber 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 1♀, ex Chionaspis parastigma Ballachowski on Quercus persica (Fagaceae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 3♀, ex Chionaspis lepineyi Balla-chowski on Quercus libani (Fagaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 2♀, ex C. dictyosper-mi on Punica sp. (Punicaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Tabriz, 2♀, ex Chrysumphalus dictyospermi (Morgan) on Cercis griffithii, September 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: China, Italy, France, Spain, USA.

Host: Diaspididae: Aspidiotus nerii Bouche [= Aspidiotus hederae (Vallot)], Chrysomphalus dic-

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872 H. GHAHRI ET AL.

tyospermi; Pseudaonidia duplex; Quadraspidiotus perniciosus, Q. lenticularis, Mytilococcus destefanii, Aulacaspis rosae.

Species group: inquirenda group sensu.

Encarsia formosa Gahan, 1924

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Oshnavieh, 2♀, 2♂, ex B. tabaci on Rosa sp. (Rosace-ae), 3.vii.2006. East Azerbaijan province: Kaleybar, 3♀, 4♂, ex Trialeurodes vaporariorum on Phaseolus vulgaris (Leguminosae), August 2006. East Azerbai-jan province: Maragheh, 5♀, ex T. vaporariorum Westwood on Verbena hybrida (Verbenaceae), Au-gust 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Khomarloo, Aras boundary, 6♀, 2♂, ex Trialeurodes vaporari-orum on Phaseolus vulgaris var. contender (Legumi-nosae), September 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Aynalo, 1♀, ex Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood on Lycopersicum esculentum (Solanaceae), June 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 1♀, ex Bemi-sia tabaci on Lycopersicon esculentum (Solanaceae), July 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Piranshahr, 2♀, 2♂, ex Aleyrodes lonicerae Walker Solanum melonge-na (Solanaceae), July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 8♀, 5♂, ex Bemisia tabaci on Gossypium hirsutum (Malvaceae), September 2007. East Az-erbaijan province: Khomarloo, 3♀, 1♂, ex Bemisia tabaci on Corchorus olitorius (Tiliaceae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 2♀, 3♂, ex Trialeurodes vaporariorum on Vicia faba (Legumi-nosae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 1♀, ex Aleyrodes proletella Raphanus raphanistrum (Brassicaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan prov-ince: Jolfa, 1♀, 1♂, ex Bemisia tabaci on Amaranthus spinosus (Chenopodiaceae), September 2009.

Distribution outside Iran: The species originated in the USA and Canada. It has spread all over the world through introduction (cosmopolitan).

Host: Aleyrodidae: Aleuroglandulus malangae Russel, Aleurotrachelus trachoides (Back), Aleyrodes lonicerae Walker, Aleyrodes proletella (L.), Aleyrodes spiraeoides Quaintance, Bemisia tabaci Gennadius,

Dialeurodes chittenderi Laing, Dialeurodes citri (Ash-mead) Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood.

Species group: luteola group.

Comments: E. formosa is a successful agent for the biological control of Trialeurodes vaporariorum in greenhouses, Bemisia tabaci in fields, and probably other aleyrodids. T. vaporariorum is the main host, but the parasitoid is also known from some other species of whiteflies. E. formosa was introduced into Iran between 1945 and 1950 for the control of T. va-porariorum and B. tabaci in greenhouses. Mass rear-ing and release of E. formosa on the T. vaporariorum in the greenhouses of Iran was studied by Ghahari (1999).

Encarsia inaron (Walker, 1839)

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ho-rand, 2♀, ex Aleyrodes singularis Danzig on Euphor-bia pulcherrima (Euphorbiaceae), October 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 2♀, ex Trialeurodes vaporariorum on Rosa beggariana (Rosaceae), Sep-tember 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 3♀, ex Siphoninus immaculatus (Heeger) on Hedera helix (Araliaceae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 6♀, 2♂, ex Siphoninus phillyrea on Ulmus carpinifolia var. umbraculifera, August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Tabriz, 2♀, 1♂, ex Siphoni-nus phillyrea on Ulmus carpinifolia (Ulmaceae), Sep-tember 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: Palaearctic regions; Bulgaria, England, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jor-dan; Egypt, India, North Africa, Pakistan, Taiwan, Introduced into North America, almost regions of Asia and Africa.

Host: Aleurochiton aceris (Modeer), Aleurochiton acerinus Haupt, Bulgarialeurodes cotesii (Maskell), Aleyrodes lonicerea (Walker), Aleyrodes proletella (L.), Asterobemisia carpini (Koch), Rosanovia hulthemiae Danzig, Acaudaleyrodes citri Priesner and Hosny, Aleyrodes singularis Danzig, Asterobemisia paveli (Zahradnik), Bemisia tabaci Gennadius, Bemisia sp.,

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Pealius quercus (Signoret), Siphoninus immaculatus (Heeger), Siphoninus phillyrea Haliday, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westw.

Species group: inaron group.

Comments: E. inaron is a widespread species and a rather efficient parasitoid for the control of T. vapo-rariorum in greenhouses and S. phillyreae in nature. E. inaron constitutes a complex of cryptic species, and morphometric and molecular analysis of the E. inaron species-group was studied in detail by Man-zari et al. (2002), and a new species was described as E. estrellae Manzari and Polaszek. With the addition of the above synonyms, it appears that E. longicornis Mercet and E. siphonini Silvestri may also consti-tute synonyms of E. inaron, but further study by ad-vanced taxonomic methods is necessary to confirm this. Different populations of E. inaron show color differences, and this variety has resulted in ambigui-ties. Hulden (1986) described E. borealis on the basis of minor color differences from E. aleyrodis. Polaszek et al. (1992) and Laudonia and Viggiani (1995) have discussed color variation in this species. An impres-sive study was made on the biology of E. inaron in Iran by Ghahari (1999).

Encarsia lounsburyi (Berlese and Paoli, 1916)

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Aras boundary, 1♀, ex Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret) on Ulmus campestris (Ulmaceae), September 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Khoy, 1♀, ex Parlatoria ziziphi Lucas on Hedera helix (Araliaceae), September 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Horand, 2♀, ex Parlatoria pergandii on Cammelia japonica (Teaceae), Octo-ber 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 3♀, ex Aspidiotus nerii Bouche on Aralia sp., September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Kaleybar, 2♀, ex Parlatoria pergandii on Althea rosea (Malvaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 4♀, ex Parlatoria asiatica Borchsenius on Ephedra sp., August 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: China, Taiwan; Egypt; cosmopolitan and widely introduced.

Host: Diaspididae: Chrysomphalus dictyosper-mi, Parlatoria ziziphi (Lucas), Carulaspis juniperi (Bouche) (= visci Schrank), Chrysomphalus aonid-ium (L.) (as C. ficus), Chrysomphalus sp., Cornuaspis (= Lepidosaphes) beckii (Newman), Hemiberlesia sp., Aonidiella aurantii (Huang and Polaszek, 1998), Ab-grallaspis (as Aspidiotus) cyanophylii (Signoret), As-pidiotus nerii Bouche (as A. hederae), C. personatus Comstock, Diaspis echinicacti (Bouche), Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret) (as Diaspidiotus), Fiorinia fiorin-iae (Targionii), Lepidosaphes pinnaeformis (Bouche), Lineaspis (as Chionaspis) striata (Newstead), Parlato-ria pergandei Comstock, Parlatoria proteus (Curtis).

Species group: citrina group.

Comment: E. lounsburyi is very close to E. citrina (Craw). The main difference between the two species is the number of setae on the submarginal vein, one seta in E. lounsburyi but two in E. citrina. Also, the fore wings of E. lounsburyi have a longer marginal fringe than E. citrina, and petiole with fine sculp-ture.

Encarsia lutea (Masi, 1909)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Khoy, 10♀, 2♂, ex Bemisia tabaci Genn. on Cucumis sati-vus (Cucurbitaceae), September 2006. East Azerbai-jan province: Aynalo, 2♂, ex Aleurolobus marlatti Quaintance on Verbena officinalis (Verbenaceae), June 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khodafarin, 6♀, 3♂, ex Bemisia tabaci on Gossypium hirsutun (Malvaceae), July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Khomarloo, 1♀, ex Bemisia ovata Goux on Helian-thus anuus (Compositae), September 2007. West Az-erbaijan province: Ourmieh, 2♀, 2♂, ex Dialeurodes kirkaldyi (Kotinsky) on Juglan regia (Juglandaceae), October 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 3♀, 3♂, ex Aleurocanthus spiniferus Quaintance on Ficus capensis (Moraceae), September 2007. West Azerbai-jan province: Maco, 2♀, ex Aleurolobus marlatti on Verbena officinalis (Verbenaceae), May 2009. East Azerbaijan province: Maragheh, 4♀, ex Aleurolobus marlatti Quaintance on Punica granatum (Punicace-ae), July 2009.

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Distribution outside Iran: Italy, Russia and ad-jacent countries; India, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, all the Palaearctic regions; Australia and adjacent regions.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Acaudaleyrodes citri, Aleu-rocanthus cinnamomi Takahashi, Aleurocanthus zizyphi, Aleurolobus marlatti Quaintance, Aleurolo-bus niloticus, Aleurolobus rhododendri Takahashi, Aleurolobus setigerus Quaintance and Baker, Aleu-rolobus wunni (Ryberg), Aleuroplatus pectiniferus Quaintance and Baker, Aleurotrachelus jelinekii (Frauenfeld), Aleurotrachelus rubi Takahashi, Aleurotrachelus sp., Aleurotuberculatus aucubae (Kuwana), Aleurotuberculatus ficicola Takahashi, Aleurotuberculatus psidii (Singh), Aleyrodes lon-icerae, Aleyrodes proletella, Asterobemisia atrap-haxis Danzig, Asterobemisia carpini, Asterobemisia atraphaxius (Danzig), Bemisia argentifolii, Bemisia ovata (Goux), Bemisia porteri Corbett, Bemisia sali-caria Danzig, Bemisia tabaci, Bulgarialeurodes co-tesii, Dialeurodes citri, Dialeurodes fici, Dialeurodes formosanensis Takahashi, Dialeurodes kirkaldyi, Dialeurodes sp., Pealius azalea (Baker and Moles), Pealius mori, Pealius setosus Danzig, Siphoninus phillyreae, Singhius hibisci, Taiwanaleyrodes melios-mae, Tetralicia sp., Trialeurodes abutiloneus (Halde-man).

Species group: lutea group.

Comments: There exist considerable color vari-ations of E. lutea as two or more species may be involved, but further studies are required to either confirm or refute this. Different populations of E. lutea from Australia and the Pacific Islands differ from each other by a single point mutation in the D2 expansion region of the 28S ribosomal DNA gene region (Babcock et al., 2001). Additional col-oration, this species shows variation in the dimen-sions of the antennal segments, and length of the marginal fringe compared to wing width (Hayat, 1998). The male of E. lutea was collected from eggs of Heliothis zea (Boddie) and Trichoplosia ni (Hub-ner) (Noctuidae) in Piranshahr (West Azerbaijan province). E. lutea is the most important parasitoid

on B. tabaci in the cotton fields of the Middle East (Gerling, 1986).

Encarsia luteola Howard, 1895

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Oshnavieh, 1♀, ex Trialeurodes variabilis Quaint-ance on Cyperus rotandus (Cyperaceae), 2.vii.2006. West Azerbaijan province: Maco, 1♀, ex Trialeu-rodes lauri (Signoret) on Laurus nobilis (Lauraceae), 18.vii.2006.

Distribution outside Iran: Brazil, Guadeloupe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA (Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Pennsylvania), Israel, Russia and adjacent countries (Federation of Inde-pendent States).

Host: Aleyrodidae: Aleurocybotus indicus Dav-id and Subramaniam, Aleyrodes sp., Bemisia tabaci Genn., Trialeurodes sp.

Species group: luteola group.

Comments: Certain populations of E. luteola are extremely difficult to distinguish from E. formosa be-cause both the species belong to the E. luteola group and their morphological differences are very slight. The most morphological differences between the two parasitoids are as below. In E. luteola, each axilla typ-ically with at most 5 reticulate cells longitudinally; F2 of female without a sensillum; mid tibial spur about half the length of the corresponding basitarsus, face mostly pale. In E. formosa, each axilla typically with at 6 (usually more) reticulate cells longitudinally; F2 of female with a sensillum; mid tibial spur less than half the length of the corresponding basitarsus; face almost entirely dark.

E. luteola was introduced into Israel from Cali-fornia for the control of B. tabaci (Rivnay and Ger-ling, 1987). This species also was introduced into Russia, Uzbekistan and many other adjacent regions for the biological control of B. tabaci on cotton, vege-tables and decorative plants in 1989 (Tryapitzin et al., 1996). With due attention to the nearness of Israel,

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Russia, and the Federation of Independent States, the introduction of the parasitoid into Iran is probably through these countries.

Encarsia mineoi Viggiani, 1982

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Ka-leybar, 2♀, ex Siphoninus immaculatus (Heeger) on Populus nigra nigra (Salicaceae), August 2006. West Azerbaijan province: Khoy, 1♀, 1♂, ex Trialeurodes vaporariorum on Citrullus colocynthis (Cucurbita-cea), September 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Tabriz, 1♀, ex Siphoninus phillyreae on Fraxinus ex-celsior (Oleaceae), September 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: Australia, Egypt, Is-rael, Libya, Spain, Sudan.

Host: Aleyrodidae: Acaudaleyrodes citri, Bemisia tabaci, Siphoninus phillyreae, Trialeurodes vaporari-orum.

Species group: parvella group.

Comments: E. mineoi is close to E. acaudaleyrodes and perhaps these species are conspecific (Polaszek et al., 1999). The most reliable difference is the oviposi-tor length, which is, in E. mineoi, shorter than, or up to 1.1 times the length of the middle tibia, and in E. acaudaleyrodes 1.2 times as long as the middle tibia. There are many materials of E. menoi, E. meneoi and E. moneoi in Israel; with due attention to their same host (Acaudaleyrodes citri), it is possible that all of them are E. acaudaleyrodis. Re-examination of these materials is necessary for final statement. Males of E. mineoi were reared by Polaszek et al. (1999) and pre-sumably as hyperparasitoids, from T. vaporariorum.

Encarsia perniciosi (Tower, 1913)

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Oshnavieh, 4♀, 1♂, ex Q. perniciosus on Salix alba (Salicaceae), 3.vii.2006. East Azerbaijan prov-ince: Aras boundary, 4♀, 1♂, ex Q. perniciosus on Populus nigra nigra (Salicaceae), September 2006. East Azerbaijan province: Abshahmad, 3♀, 2♂, ex

Quadraspidiotus perniciosus Comstock on Populus nigra nigra (Salicaceae), April 2007. West Azerbai-jan province: Piranshahr (1♀, 2♂), 2♀, ex Q. perni-ciosus on Hedera helix (Araliaceae), July 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 3♀, 2♂, ex Q. pernicio-sus on Robinia viscosa (Papilionaceae), September 2007.

Distribution outside Iran: India, Pakistan, China, Taiwan, Russia, USA; nearly cosmopolitan, having been widely introduced.

Host: Diaspididae: Parlatoria acalcarata Morgan, Quadraspidiotus gigas, Q. perniciosus (Comstock), Lepidosaphes ulmi.

Species group: aurantii group.

Comments: E. perniciosi is one of the most ef-ficient parasitoids on the San Jose scale in different regions of the world. Our examination of the dif-ferent populations of this parasitoid indicated that there is variation in the presence/absence of a longi-tudinal sensillum on F1. The reason of this variation that was seen in the surveys of Huang and Polaszek (1998) can be the effect of different biotypes or races of hosts (armored scales) on the parasitoid or specia-tion of another Encarsia species. Further studies will be undertaken to solve this problem.

List of Eretmocerus species

Eretmocerus cadabae Viggiani, 1982

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Khod-afarin, 2♂, 1♀, ex Aleuroplatus pectiniferus Quaint-ance and Baker on Ficus capensis (Moraceae), August 2008.

Distribution outside Iran: Afrotropical: Ethio-pia.

Host: Aleuroplatus cadabae Priesner and Hosny; Aleuroplatus pectiniferus Quaintance and Baker.

Species group: cadabae group.

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Eretmocerus mundus Mercet, 1931

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Pi-ranshahr, 1♀, 4♂, ex Bemisia afer (Priesner and Hosny) on Cynanchum acutum (Lauraceae), July 2007. West Azerbaijan province: Ourmieh, 3♀, 2♂, ex Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) complex on Hibiscus escu-lentum (Malvaceae), September 2007. East Azerbai-jan province: Khodafarin, 8♀, 5♂, ex Bemisia tabaci Genn.) complex on Gossypium hirsutum (Malvace-ae), September 2007. East Azerbaijan province: Ahar, 3♀, ex Bulgarialeurodes cotesii (Maskell) on Rosa canina (Rosaceae), August 2008. East Azerbai-jan province: Maragheh, 2♀, 1♂, ex Trialeurodes ri-cini (Misra) on Ricinus communis (Euphorbiaceae), July 2009.

Distribution outside Iran: Nearctic: USA (in-troduced into Arizona, California, Florida, South Carolina and Texas); Neotropical: Argentina; West-ern Palaearctic: Canary Islands, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Madeira Islands, Spain, Turkmenistan; Afrotropical: Kenya, Zimbabwe; Oriental: India.

Host: Aleuroplatus cadabae Priesner and Hosny; Aleyrodes sp.; Asterobemisia carpini (Koch); Aster-obemisia paveli (Zahradnik); Bemisia afer (Priesner and Hosny); Bemisia ovata (Goux); Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius); Bulgarialeurodes cotesii (Maskell); ?Ne-omaskellia bergii (Signoret); Trialeurodes ricini (Mis-ra); Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood); Rosano-via hulthemiae Danzig; Aleyrodes lonicerae Walker.

Species group: mundus group.

Eretmocerus nikolskajae Myartseva, 1973

Material examined: East Azerbaijan province: Khod-afarin, 1♀, 1♂, ex Tetralicia erianthi Danzig on Ru-nunculus arvensis (Rununculaceae), August 2008. East Azerbaijan province: Jolfa, 2♀, ex Bulgarialeu-rodes cotesii (Maskell) on Rosa hemisphaerica (Ro-saceae), September 2009.

Distribution outside Iran: Palaearctic: Turkmen-istan.

Host: Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius); Bulgarialeu-rodes cotesii (Maskell); Tetralicia erianthi Danzig.

Species group: paulistus group.

Eretmocerus serius Silvestre, 1927

Material examined: West Azerbaijan province: Our-mieh, 2♂, ex Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance) on Citrus sp. (Rutaceae), September 2007.

Distribution outside Iran: Nearctic (introduced): USA; Neotropical (introduced): Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama; Western Palaearctic (introduced): Oman; Afrotropical (introduced): Kenya, South Africa; Eastern Palaearctic: China, Japan; Oriental: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaya, Malaysia, My-anmar (Burma), Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australasian (intro-duced): Guam, Hawaii.

Host: Aleurocanthus citriperdus Quaintance and Baker; Aleurocanthus inceratus Silvestri; Aleurocan-thus longispinus Quaintance and Baker; Aleurocan-thus woglumi Ashby; ?Neomaskiella bergii (Signo-ret).

Species group: californicus group.

Comment: Biparental species. Gerling (1969) redescribed this species and separated three spe-cies collected from three different hosts which were previously under the name of E. serius Silvestri. He restricted the specimens bred from Aleurocanthus woglumi as being E. serius and considered other ma-terial as representing two species: E. silvestrii from A. spiniferus Quiantance, and raised Silvestri’s ‘variety’ orientalis (host: A. inceratus Silvestri) to the specif-ic level. Thus the material from A. woglumi should represent the true E. serius (Hayat 1998). E. serius was one of several parasitoids introduced into New World and other areas of the world for the control of the citrus blackfly, Aleurocanthus woglumi. Sub-sequent collections of A. woglumi have yielded pri-marily specimens of Encarsia perplexa Huang and

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Polaszek (erroneously reported in much of the lit-erature as Encarsia opulenta (Silvestri)) and Amitus hesperidum Silvestri which appear to have overdomi-nated Eretmocerus serius.

DISCUSSION

The results of this research indicate that the fauna of Encarsia and Eretmocerus species in Arasbaran is very diverse. Although several samplings were con-ducted in different regions of Arasbaran and also on various plants, this region is very large area and we expect that some other species rremain to be dis-covered. Iranian Encarsia and Eretmocerus species were revised by Abd-Rabou and Ghahari (2004) and Abd-Rabou et al. (2005b). These parasitoids have an efficient role in the biological control of whiteflies (Aleyrodidae) and armored scales (Diaspididae) and if conserved, they can have powerful role in the con-trol of these important agricultural pests (Gerling, 1986; Ghahari and Hatami, 2000).

Acknowledgments - The authors are indebted to Dr. G. Vig-giani of Italy, Dr. J. Zahradnik of Czech Republic and Dr. G. Evans of USA for valuable help in progress of the project. The research was supported by Islamic Azad University, National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30971968) and Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture.

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