What says the chalcidoid (Hymenoptera) diversity in the Lake Urmia basin?

Abstract

View on Scopus Chalcidoidea play an important role in the biological control of many agricultural pests. The present study determines and compares the diversities of this superfamily in four ecosystems in the Lake Urmia basin. It is the largest hypersaline lake in the world with a large basin of different ecological conditions in northwest Iran. These stations were: Khajeh (K) and Tasuj (T) in Lake Urmia Basin (LUBin) and Khoda-Afarin (KA) and Tikme-Dash (TD) out of their (LUBout). Four months of Malaise trapping in these habitats resulted in a total of 512 specimens from 11 families of Chalcidoidea, including 6, 9, 10 and 10 families in K, KA, T and TD, respectively. Maximum abundance was observed in the T station with 192 and the minimum was in the K station with 38. However, the families, Encyrtidae and Chalcididae have maximum abundance in T and KA, respectively. The maximum activity of chalcidoid wasps was observed during June-August. The majority of the species were belonging to the family Mymaridae (25%), in LUBout habitats peaked at 47 specimens in TD during the sampling period, while the corresponding LUBin habitats peaked at 40 specimens in T. The two LUBout habitats had greater community similarity (60%) than found between in and LUBout habitats (42%) and diversity of chalcidoid wasps in LUBout was found much more than LUBin. Biodiversity studies showed that the KA station has the greatest values of diversity, evenness, and richness of Chalcidoidea. This station is located outside of Lake Urmia basin with the warmest and most humid climate and forest ecosystem on the margins of the Aras River.

Keywords

• diversity
• parasitoid
• chalcidoidea
• lake urmia
• halophyte
• conservation