Habrobracon hebetor Say, 1836

Gadallah, Neveen S., Edmardash, Yusuf A., Mansour, Amany N. & Imam, Ahmed I., 2023, Parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonoidea) collected from faba bean fields, Kharga Oasis, New Valley, Egypt, with new records and the description of a new species, Zootaxa 5389 (5), pp. 501-544 : 516

Habrobracon hebetor Say, 1836

Fig. 8B

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 intercropped with B. napus .

Diagnosis. Female body colour predominantly dark brown, with head orange except black in the following areas: most of lower face extending to between antennal bases and a smaller rounded marking in the middle of upper face, ocellar triangle, posterior margin of head; antenna entirely dark brown, with pale antennal bases; mesoscutum black, with indistinct orange notauli, orange laterally encircling humeral plate; metasoma entirely dark brown; legs dark brown with yellow to orange markings; ovipositor pale yellow, ovipositor sheath dark brown. Fore wing with pterostigma of fore wing entirely and uniformly pale brown.

Antenna slightly shorter than body, with 14 antennomeres; vertex with short, erect setae (when seen from lateral aspect), reaching ocellar triangle; fore wing 3-SR about as long as vein r; metasomal T 3-5 impunctate; ovipositor sheath 0.76× as long as hind tibia.

Distribution in the MENA: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey. It is a cosmopolitan species occurring in different parts of the world ( Yu et al. 2016).

Comments: A cosmopolitan species occurring in different parts of the world ( Yu et al. 2016). The polyphagous gregarious ectoparasitoid H. hebetor Say is recorded as being a parasitoid of several lepidopterous species of the families Depressariidae , Gelechiidae , Noctuidae , Nolidae , Oecophoridae , Papilionidae , Pieridae , Pyralidae , Tineidae , Tortricidae and Yponomeutidae ( Yu et al. 2016) . It is, like H. brevicornis , an important potential biocontrol agent attacking the larval stages of a wide range of lepidopterous insects, it has a short generation time with a tremendous reproductive ability ( van Achterberg & Polaszek 1996; Dweck & Gadallah 2008). In Egypt, it has been recorded as a parasitoid of some insect pests of cereal products ( Abdel-Rahman et al. 1977), as well as a parasitoid of the date moth Cadra calidella Guenée , and the locust bean moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) , pests of palm trees Phoenix dactilefera in Siwa Oasis (Western Desert, Egypt) ( Mesbah et al. 1998). It also attacks the stored product pests Cadra cautella (Walker) and Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) ( Khalafallah 2012) . In 2017, it was reported as being a parasitoid of the olive leaf moth Palpita unionalis Hübner , a serious pest of olives as well as the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella in Egypt ( Mansour & Saber 2017); and as a powerful biocontrol agent assaulting the fourth and fifth instars of the wax moth Gallaria mellonella (Linnaeus) ( Awadallah et al. 1985; Adly & Marzouk 2019; Abou El-Ela et al. 2021).

In the present study, H. hebetor is a first record in association with faba beans intercropped with Canola ( Brassica napus ).

Figures

FIGURE 8. A, Habrobracon brevicornis (Wesmael, 1838) (♀), habitus, dorso-lateral aspect; B, Habrobracon hebetor Say, 1836 (♀), habitus, lateral aspects.