Diplazon laetatorius (Fabricius, 1781)

Fig. 19 (B, C)

Material examined: 1♀, Kharga Oasis (New Valley) [25°14’02.8”N 30°31’32.2”E], May, 2022, blue pan trap in V. faba .

Diagnosis. Body generally black with some whitish markings in the following areas: inner orbits of eyes, clypeus, base of mandibles, palpi, antennal toruli, anterolateral sides of mesoscutum, humeral plate and tegula, scutellum (mostly), postscutellun; antenna dark brown to black with reddish brown last segment; metasoma with the following parts orange: T 1 medially and apically, T 2, T 3 and basal half of T 4; legs orange, with hind tibia tricolored: black basally and subapically, whitish between black bands, and orange at apical fourth. Propodeum fully carinated, with closed petiolar area; ovipositor short, hardly exserted from tip of metasoma, ovipositor sheath with short, fine setae along its outer margin.

Distribution in the MENA: Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Libya, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates.

Comments: This species is very common in all Egyptian localities. Characters agree with Klopfstein’s key (2014: 34, couplet 4).

Diplazon laetatorius is a cosmopolitan species parasitizing syrphid flies attacking aphid crop pests (Wahl 2014). It has been recorded by Horstmann (1970) as being a parasitoid of the hover fly Epistrophe balteata in V. faba fields. Also, recorded by Constantineanu and Voicu (1982) emerging from the pupa of Paragus tibialis (Fallén) from a colony of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae .

In Egypt, it has been recorded in Aswan by Shaumar (1966) hatching from watermelon infested with aphids.