Egg parasitoids of the genus (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) are important natural enemies of many lepidopterous pests in agricultural and forest areas. Because the use of indigenous populations/species can significantly increase the biological control efficiency, the characterization of endemic populations and precise species identification is important. In this study, wasps were collected from parasitized eggs of several lepidopteran pests in Northern and Central Iran. Seven species were identified based on the morphology and the nucleotide sequence, size and restriction profile (PCR-RFLP) of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of the rDNA of . Bezdenko, Marchal, Hartig, Westwood, Girault, Voegel, and Sorokina. This is the first report of in Iran. Additionally, natural populations were surveyed for the prevalence of . Two populations of were found to be infected by a single strain which was identified by using a multi-locus sequencing approach

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Fertility life table parameters were assessed for five populations (strains) of two Trichogramma species, T. embryophagum Hartig and T. principium Sugonyaev & Sorokina, collected from eggs of the carob moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) in Iranian pomegranate orchards. Four combinations of two constant temperatures (25°C, 30°C) and two relative humidity levels (50% RH, 70% RH) were used. The overall intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) was significantly decreased with decreased relative humidity but was uninfluenced by temperature. The highest and lowest rm values were observed in T. embryophagum from Qum (0.34 Ϯ 0.004) and T. embryophagum from Varamin (0.13 Ϯ 0.01), respectively. Two-way interaction analyses revealed that the strains had significantly different responses in their rm values at different temperatures and relative humidities. In general, rm values were significantly higher at 25°C and 70% RH than at 30°C and 50% RH. The Qum strain of T. embryophagum was the most promising candidate to be considered as a biocontrol agent against E. ceratoniae due to its high reproductive rate (0.27 Ϯ 0.01) at conditions (30°C and 50% RH) similar to the actual climatic conditions in Iranian pomegranate orchards during the major part of the growing season.