Species diversity and richness of arthropods related to wintering larvae of Euproctis chrysorrhoea L. (Lepidoptera.: Erebidae) in different areas of Arasbaran forests

Euproctis chrysorrhoea L. is the key pests of Arasbaran forests and has very high distribution. This research was conducted in order to investigating species diversity and richness of the arthropods related to wintering larvae of pest in eight regions of Ahar and Horand in East Azarbaijan in 2019. Number of 20 oak trees were selected in each area and 10 nests of wintering larvae were collected from each tree and transferred to the laboratory. Isolation of arthropods inside larval nests was done in the laboratory and species richness indices, Shannon and Simpson diversity of them at different elevation classes were also calculated. In this research, the number of seven species of arthropods on the overwintering larvae of E. chrysorrhoea were collected and identified as follows: Brachymeria intermedia Nees, Monodontomerus aerus Walker, Pimpla turionellae L., Meteorus obsoletus Wesmael, Telenemus sp., Tachina praeceps Meigen and Thomisas sp. The highest number of arthropods (six species) was observed in Niagh area in Horand. The highest frequency was belong to Telenemus sp. Diversity and species richness of arthropods of E. chrysorrhoea was less in different regions of Ahar than Horand. So that the highest and lowest values of Shannon's diversity index with values of 2.56 and 1.04, as well as the highest and lowest values of Simpson index with values of 0.76 and 0.31, respectively, were recorded in Niagh in Horand and Goravan in Ahar. Results showed that the height above sea level did not affect diversity indices of arthropods related to wintering larvae.