Aenasius bambawalei Hayat, 2009

Fallahzadeh, Majid, Japoshvili, George, Abdimaleki, Roohafza & Saghaei, Nazila, 2014, New records of Tetracneminae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) from Iran, Turkish Journal of Zoology 38 (4), pp. 515-518 : 516-517

Aenasius bambawalei Hayat, 2009 syn. nov.

Material examined: 3♀♀, 4♂♂, Hormozgan Province, Minab, 18.02.2010, ex Phenacoccus solenopsis on Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. ( Malvaceae ); 21♀♀, 3♂♂, Hormozgan Province, Rodkhaneh, 15.06.2010, ex P. solenopsis on Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet ( Malvaceae ); 17♀♀, Hormozgan Province, Rodan, 19.07.2010, ex P. solenopsis on Solanum nigrum L. ( Solanaceae ); 9♀♀, Rodkhaneh, 25.07.2010, ex P. solenopsis on A. hirtum .

Additional material from Smithsonian Institution collection: 1♀, 1♂, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 16.07.1949 , ex Phenacoccus solenopsis , leg. R. Flock ; 1♀, Sabino Canyon, Arizona, USA, 26.04.1940 , Oman; 1♂, Phoenix , Arizona, USA, 16.06.1943 .

Distribution: China, India, Iran *, Pakistan, USA ( Girault, 1915; Hayat, 2009; Chen et al., 2011; Zain-ul-Abdin et al., 2012; www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/ chalcidoids/index.html).

Hosts: Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, 1898 ( Hemiptera , Pseudococcidae ) on Gossypium hirsutum ( Malvaceae ) and many weed species ( Hayat, 2009; Nalini and Manickavasagam, 2011).

Comments: This parasitoid is new as genus and species for the Iranian fauna. Aenasius is a mainly a New World genus, but has also been recorded from other biogeographic areas,including over42 described species ( Noyes and Hayat, 1994; www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/chalcidoids/index. html). Aenasius arizonensis belongs to Anagyrini within Tetracneminae . This species was originally described from the USA as Chalcaspis arizonensis ( Girault, 1915) and later transferred to Aenasius (Noyes and Woolley, 1994) . Hayat (2009) described A. bambawalei from India and compared it to A. longiscapus Compere, 1937 , although this species falls closer to A. arizonensis . We compared A. arizonensis from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (SI-NMNH) collection to the original description of A. bambawalei and found that they are identical; we conclude that A. bambawalei must be treated as a junior synonym of A. arizonensis . This species is considered a primary, solitary endoparasitoid of solenopsis mealybug.

The solenopsis mealybug is native to the Nearctic and was originally described from New Mexico, USA. ( Tinsley, 1898). It is now found in numerous regions including South and Central America, Africa, and Asia (http://www. sel.barc.usda.gov/scalenet/scalenet.htm). This species is known as the cotton mealybug, although its host range is quite diverse and it attacks many weeds, agricultural crops, and ornamental plants ( Abbas et al., 2005; Hodgson et al., 2008; Arif et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2010; Sing et al., 2012). In Asia, this pest has also been reported to be present in Pakistan ( Abbas et al., 2005), India ( Yousuf et al., 2007), Thailand and Taiwan ( Hodgson et al., 2008), China ( Wang et al., 2009, 2010), and Indonesia ( Muniappan et al., 2011), and it causes economic damage in cotton field crops in Pakistan and India ( Nagrare et al., 2009). In Iran, P. solenopsis was reported for the first time on Hibiscus rosa-sinensis ( Malvaceae ) in Hormozgan Province ( Moghaddam and Bagheri, 2010). The solenopsis mealybug is a serious pest and now widely distributed throughout the cotton-growing areas of the province. Forty-three plant species from 20 families have been recorded as hosts of P. solenopsis in Hormozgan Province, southern Iran. Most P. solenopsis hosts belong to families Solanaceae , Malvaceae , and Cucurbitaceae , accounting for 48% of the reported host plants ( Fallahzadeh et al., 2014). Fallahzadeh et al. (2013) reported 4 coccinellid species ( Coleoptera , Coccinellidae ) as predators of solenopsis mealybug in Hormozgan Province, but our knowledge of the parasitoids of P. solenopsis in Iran is limited.

Tribe Anagyrini Hoffer, 1953

Genus Leptomastix Förster, 1856

Leptomastix longicornis Khan & Shafee, 1975

Material examined: 2♀♀, Fars Province, Jahrom, 29.04.2009, ex Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead) on Citrus ( Rutaceae ).

Distribution: India ( Khan and Shafee, 1975), Iran *.

Hosts: Unknown coccid on a wild plant ( Khan and Shafee, 1975).

Comments: Leptomastix includes 32 described species (www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/chalcidoids/index.html). It is an Old World genus ( Noyes and Hayat, 1994). The species of the genus are primary, solitary endoparasitoids of many mealybugs ( Pseudococcidae ), which are often important pests on various fruit trees, ornamental trees, and other economically important trees. So far, 5 species, abyssinica Compere, dactylopii Howard , flava Mercet, nigrocoxalis Compere, and phenacocci Compere , have been used for suppression of various crop pests ( Noyes and Hayat, 1994). In the present study, L. longicornis is a new species record for the Palearctic, and Nipaecoccus viridis is a new host record for it.

Prior to our study, 132 species belonging to 45 genera of Encyrtidae had been recorded from Iran ( Fallahzadeh and Japoshvili, 2010, 2013). As a result of the present paper, 1 genus ( Aenasius Walker, 1846 ) and 3 species [ Tetracnemus peliococci Myartseva, 1979 ; Aenasius arizonensis ( Girault, 1915) ; and Leptomastix longicornis Khan & Shafee, 1975 ] were added to the faunal list of Iran. The total number of Encyrtidae species recorded from the country increased to 135 within 46 genera. The species L. longicornis was described from India (Oriental region) and has not been cited from other parts of the world until now. We believe that Encyrtidae can be augmented and may be represented by more than several hundred species in Iran, while it includes a total of more than over 1200 species in the Palearctic region (www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/ chalcidoids/index.html).

The 3 encyrtid species A. arizonensis (Girault) , A. phenacocci Ashmead , and Prochiloneurus dactylopii Howard ; the eulophid wasp Aprostocetus minutus Howard ; and the signiphorid Chartocerus dactylopii Ashmead have been recorded as primary parasitoids of P. solenopsis (www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/chalcidoids/index.html). A. arizonensis is better known as a P. solenopsis parasitoid in some parts of the world ( Hayat, 2009; www.nhm.ac.uk/ entomology/chalcidoids/index.html). It is native to the Nearctic, but it seems to have been introduced throughout the world with its host mealybug. In our study, it is a