نشریه نامه انجمن حشره شناسی ایران
سال چهل و دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 89، بهار 1401)

A new species of oak gall wasp, Andricus pseudocecconii Melika, Tavakoli & Stone, sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini) is described. Descriptions, diagnoses, biology, and host associations for the new species are given. The new taxon is supported by morphological and molecular data.

Sixteen date palm cultivars were studied for their susceptibility to the date palm dust mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus, at the Date Palm and Tropical Fruit Research Institute of Bushehr, Iran. Three date palms naturally infested by O. afrasiaticus were randomly selected per cultivar. Four fruit strands per bunch of each sampling tree were randomly collected, and the number of healthy and infested fruits was counted. Fruit physicochemical attributes of these cultivars were also recorded at the Kimri stage using standard procedures. The analysis was carried out according to a completely randomized design. The results revealed significant differences among cultivars regarding susceptibility to O. afrasiaticus. The cultivars Barahi, Maktoub, Haleli, and Deglet Noor, were more resistant to the date palm dust mite than the other cultivars. Significant differences among cultivars were also observed in all tested physicochemical characteristics. The percentage of infestation had a significant positive correlation with the Kernel weight, fruit length, and the number of strands. Tannin content ranged from 0.97 to 8.13%, total soluble solids (TSS) from 10.00 to 70.00% Brix, and titratable acidity from 0.70 to 1.50%. No significant correlation was observed between the chemical characteristics of date fruits and infestation to the mite. Such information can be used to screen date palm cultivars for date fruit processing industries and breeding programs.

We aimed to explore the entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) from the different ecosystems including forests, gardens, fields, and rangeland soils in Kermanshah province, Iran. Trials were carried out on morphological, molecular characterization, diversity indices, and virulence assessments of indigenous EPF from 41 sampling sites of various localities. Using the Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) as host bait, 114 fungal isolates were recovered-i.e., 39 from forests, 38 from fields, 22 from rangelands, and 15 from garden soils. Based on morphological features and the sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the ribosomal DNA, the recovered entomopathogenic fungi were identified as Alternaria chlamydosporigena, Aspergillus nomius, Beauveria bassiana, B. pseudobassiana, B. brongniartii, Chaetomium elatum, Fusarium equiseti, F. oxysporum, Fusarium sp., Meyerozyma guilliermondii, Paramyrothecium roridum, Penicillium sizovae, P. solitum and Penicillium sp.. Higher species richness was found in the oak forest soils compared with fields, gardens, and rangelands. Additionally, the oak forest soils had high values of diversity indices, i.e., Simpson Ds (0.97), Shannon (3.30), Equitability (0.69), and Fisher's alpha (25.8). The dominance index was higher in the rangelands compared with the others. Following the priliminary assays, the insecticidal activity of three selected EPF isolates, including Beauveria brongniartii, B. bassiana, and B. pseudobassiana was tested against adults of the cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae) as host. Hypervirulent strains caused high mortality considered as promising effective biocontrol agents in insect pest management programs.

Biological characteristics especially oviposition behavior of parasitoids are one of the most important factors to determine their efficiency to suppress a pest population. In this study, age-specific oviposition pattern, parasitism rate, hatch rate, and sex ratio of Trichogramma brassicae on Ephestia kuehniella were evaluated at temperature of 25±1ºC, 70±5% relative humidity and a 16 h light: 8 h dark photoperiod. The results showed that younger T. brassicae (1st-4th days) moved throughout the cardboard and often parasitized eggs which placed in the central part, but female parasitoid of T. brassicae moved straight on cardboard and parasitized closer eggs in the end days of life (5th and 6th days). The maximum daily parasitized eggs by T. brassicae was 13.03±0.56 at the beginning of its oviposition period. Then, it decreased significantly with adult female age. The female age influenced hatch rate (%) of T. brassicae eggs. Its values were ranged from 95.07±0.82% (1st day of oviposition period) to 42.78±6.43% (6th day of oviposition period) in different days of adult female age. The highest values for sex ratio were estimated to be in the first 3 days of adult female life. The female-biased sex ratio decreased significantly with increasing adult female age. For efficient mass rearing of T. brassiace on E. kuehniella, parasitoids should not be kept more than three days in cultures because the progeny becomes male-biased and parasitism rate decreased significantly after 3rd days. Results of this study show good potential of T. brassicae and it suggest for mass rearing and to use in augmentative biological control program.

The green oak leafroller moth, Tortrix viridana Linnaeus, 1758 (Lep. Tortricidae) is one of the key pests on Quercus spp. The larval instars of the moth feed on the developing buds and the leaves and cause oak  trees to be leafless completely,  significantly damaging the oak forest of northwestern Iran each year. The genetic differences in the host plant associated populations of oak leafroller moth have been assessed in the oak forests of northwestern Iran using inter-simple sequence repeat markers (ISSR). In this study 171 specimens representing nineteen populations feeding on various oak tree species including Quercus branti Lindl. 1840, Quercus infectoria Oliv. 1801 and Quercus libani Oliv. 1801 were investigated. Results indicated that populations related to Q. libani had the highest genetic diversity, while populations related to Q. branti and Q, infectoria had lower genetic diversity. Assessment of genetic structure of the populations showed that higher diversity was demonstrated in intrapopulations (92%) than interpopulations (8%) geographically, while strongly significant host-associated differentiation was also indicated by Approximate Bayesian Computation analyses among populations, with major clusters corresponded to the three species of host plants. These findings revealed that the host plant association can have a stronger effect on the genetic variations among the populations of T. viridana than the geographical barriers.

Ecological conditions such as access to adequate and appropriate nutrition are one of the factors that affect animal behavior. Various insects try to avoid copulation and even decrease the duration of copulation under starvation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of starvation on the mating performance of Hippodamia variegata (Goeze) in which the virgin males and females (10 to 15 days old) were used. In each experiment, one male and one female were placed in a container for 3 hours (from 12 to 15) and some factors such as copulation latency and copulation duration were recorded. Experiments were conducted at the temperature of 25 ± 1°C and 50 ± 5 % humidity.The results showed the copulation latency and mating duration in the starved group and fed did not show any significant difference. These results can be interpreted that H.variegata can successfully reproduce and adapt to environments with different and even insufficient amount of food in a starvation context and it seems that this species is very suitable for biocontrol.

In this paper, Amphipyra kautti Hacker, 2002 which was collected from Zagros Mountain ranges is newly reported for the fauna of Iran. Another species from Amphipyrinae which was collected during our survey is also presented.Sampling was carried out by light traps powered by 12-volt batteries and 8-watt UVB light tubes. Materials were deposited in the Insect and Mite Collection of Ahvaz, Plant Protection Department, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. Genitalia slides were prepared following Fibiger (1997). Identifications were done according to available literature such as Hacker (1998), Fibiger & Hacker (2007) and by studying museum materials at Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest by the first author. Systematics and nomenclature are according to Fibiger & Hacker (2007), with later modifications by Keegan et. al. (2019; 2021). Adults were photographed by Canon EOS 600D and genitalia with a Canon SX40 attached to an Olympus SZX12 stereomicroscope.  Noctuidae Latreille, 1809Subfamily Amphipyrinae Guenée, 1837Tribe Amphipyrini Guenée, 1837Amphipyra kautti Hacker, 2002