Species diversity of the parasitoids in rice fields of northern Iran, especially parasitoids of rice stem borer

The parasitoids have important and powerful role on the balance of various food chains of natural- and agricultural ecosystems. Rice fields are the unique ecosystems included both aquatic and terrestrial conditions; so there are diverse fauna of arthropods in paddy fields. In this research the parasitoids' fauna in paddy fields of some regions of Guilan and Mazandaran provinces, northern Iran was studied. Total of eleven dipteran parasitoids (Diptera) and thirty four hymenopteran parasitoids (Hymenoptera) were collected from paddy fields and surrounding areas. Among the collected dipteran parasitoids (Diptera), one species of Phoridae, three species of Sarcophagidae, and four species of Tachinidae, and of hymenopteran parasitoids (Hymenoptera), three species of Chalcididae, eight species of Braconidae, twenty one species of Ichneumonidae, and two species of Trichogrammatidae were collected and identified. Two species Coelichneumon dorsosignatus (Berthoumieu, 1894) (Ichneumonidae) and Antrocephalus mitys (Walker, 1846) (Chalcididae) are new records for the fauna of Iran.