Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Mifsud, David, Farrugia, Lucia & Shaw, Mark R., 2019, Braconid and ichneumonid (Hymenoptera) parasitoid wasps of Lepidoptera from the Maltese Islands, Zootaxa 4567 (1), pp. 47-60 : 50-51

Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Materials examined: MALTA, Mosta, 20–30.ix.2016, 38 exx., emerged from Plodia interpunctella (Hübner)

( Lepidoptera : Pyralidae ) larva feeding on bird seed mixture collected on 31.vii.2016, LF, DMC [parasitoid determined by Mark Shaw; host determined by Michael Zerafa].

Notes: This koinobiont endoparasitoid was first reported from Malta by Schembri (1992) and again by Mifsud (1997) from larvae probably belonging to Selania leplastriana (Curtis) (but see comment in Table 2). It is a common parasitoid of species from the pyralid subfamily Phycitinae, such as Ephestia and Plodia spp. ( Rogers, 1972; Harvey et al., 2001). These moths are commonly found in warehouses, granaries, flour mills or similar environments that contain stored food products.