First record of Diaeretus leucopterus (Haliday) (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae), the parasitoid of the aphid species, Eulachnus agilis (Kaltenbach) (Hemiptera, Aphididae) in North Africa

Abstract

A survey of pine-associated aphids and their parasitoids was carried out in the arboretum of Pinus halepensis Miller in the Higher Agronomic Institute Chott Mariem (ISA CM, Tunisia) during 2010–2011 and 2018. The survey revealed the presence of the aphid parasitoid species, Diaeretus leucopterus (Haliday) (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae). This is the first record of D. leucopterus from Tunisia and the African continent. The parasitoid emerged from the spotted green pine needle aphid, Eulachnus agilis (Kaltenbach) (Hemiptera, Aphididae, Lachninae), on P. halepensis. The generalist hyperparasitoid, Asaphes suspensus (Nees) (Hymenoptera, Pteromalidae), was also found attacking D. leucopterus. The diagnosis of the primary parasitoid, on the basis of relevant illustrations, was provided, and the possible routes of its transportation into North Africa were discussed.

Expansion in the distribution of Pauesia silana Tremblay (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae), across North Africa, a recent discovery in Tunisia

“…The genus Pauesia in Tunisia was represented by a single species, Pauesia antennata Mukerji, 1950 that was purposefully introduced from Iran for biological control of Brown Peach Aphid, Pterochloroides persicae Chlodkovsky, 1899 (Hemiptera: Aphididae) (Mdellel et al, 2015;Adouani et al, 2017Adouani et al, , 2021. Pauesia silana is the second species that is now first recorded from Tunisia, by which the total number of Aphidiinae parasitoids raised to 18 species (see Rakhshani et al, 2019;Ben Halima Kamel et al, 2020). This species has recently been recorded from Algeria in association with Cinara pini (Linnaeus, 1758) on Pinus nigra (Ben Hamacha et al, 2017).…”