Parasitoid flies of corn and sugar beet pests in Kermanshah and Hamedan provinces (Diptera: Tachinidae)

Abstract

The tachinid flies (Diptera) and their host species have been studied in the corn and sugar beet fields of Kermanshah and Hamedan provinces from 2022 to 2023. The infested plants by caterpillars were collected in order to rear the larvae at the laboratory. In this study, six species of parasitoids were identified of which Drino imberbis (Wiedemann, 1830), Linnaemya neavei Curran, 1934 and Pseudogonia rufifrons (Wiedemann, 1830) parasitize the larval stages of Leucania loreyi (Duponchel, 1827) in corn fields. The species D. imberbis is newly reported here as a parasitoid of L. loreyi in Iran. The tachinid Voria ruralis (Fallén, 1810) is the first world recorded parasitoid of larval stages of Sesamia cretica Lederer, 1857. Furthermore, Periscepsia carbonaria (Panzer, 1797) and an undetermined Tachina sp. were discovered to parasitize the larvae of Agrotis segetum (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) and Spodoptera exigua (Hübner, [1808]), respectively, in sugar beet fields.

Keywords

• biological control
• fauna
• iran
• natural enemies
• parasitoid