Chestnut (Castanea spp.) is a very important crop in the Monti Cimini area (Viterbo, Italy) which is seriously infested with the key pest, chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus (Speranza et al., 2009). In May 2009 such seriously infested chestnut plants in the Monti Cimini area were found with necrotic leaves and galls. Lesions on leaves were irregular and variable in size, lemon green to amber in colour with green margins. Initially, galls were olive green then became dark brown. Inside the galls larvae of chestnut gall wasp were dead. Tissue from the edge of lesions was surface-sterilized using 1% sodium hypochlorite, rinsed in sterile distilled water and aseptically cut in 5-10 pieces not exceeding 5 · 5 mm, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) in Petri dishes containing an antibiotic solution (0AE2% streptomycin sulphate) and incubated at 20 ± 3°C. Light brown fungal colonies were observed after 1 week close to the tissue and numerous orange slimy masses of conidia were observed on the culture surface. The colonies were regular in outline with a clear and thinner margin. Conidia were oval to oblong, sometimes slightly obovoid, straight or curved and measured 5AE5-8AE0 lm · 2AE0-3AE0 lm (mean = 6AE8 · 2AE5 lm, n = 210).The fungus was identified at Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS, Utrecht, The Netherlands) as an undescribed species from the genus Gnomoniopsis. Identification was based on both DNA sequencing (ribosomal ITS) and morphology

The presence of chestnut gall wasp was reported for the first time in Northern Italy in 2002 and has subsequently spread rapidly in Central and Southern Italy. Knowing the harmfulness of this wasp for chestnut growing, we considered essential to inquire the cohort of parasitoids of this new insect for the Italian fauna. This research reports on preliminary results obtained in 2007 on the D. kuriphilus parasitoids in Central Italy. In particular, eight parasitoids species have been found: two Euritomidae [Sycophila biguttata (Swederus) Eurytoma brunniventris (Ratzeburg)], one Pteromalidae [Mosopolobus sericeus (Forster)], three Torymidae [Torymus flavipes (Walker), T. erucarum (Schrank), Megastigmus dorsalis (Fabricius)], one Eupelmidae [Eupelmus urozonus (Dalaman)] and one Ormyridae [Ormyrus pomaceus (Geoffroy)]. We report for the first time the presence of the Torymus erucarum as parasitoid of D. kuriphilus.