Aphidius colemani Viereck, 1912

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 : 503-504

Aphidius colemani Viereck, 1912

Material examined: 1♀, Kharga Oasis (New Valley) [25°31’34.0”N 30°37’19.9”E], May, 2022, blue pan trap in Vicia faba intercropped with Brassica napus .

Diagnosis. Antenna with 17 antennomeres, F1 brown, with narrow yellow area ventrally, about 2.5× as long as its width centrally; labial palpus 2-segmented; anterolateral area of petiole costate, with 4–5 costae; r-m vein of fore wing present, vein M+m-cu completely developed; vein R1 of fore wing about as long as or slightly shorter (0.9×) than pterostigma length.

Distribution in the MENA: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

Comments: Aphidius colemani is a cosmopolitan species and is a broadly oligophagous parasitoid on aphids of the genera Aphis , Brachycaudus , Myzus and Ropalosiphum ( Starý et al. 2014). It has been recorded as a primary parasitoid of some aphid species attacking V. faba in the Middle East. Examples include: Acyrthosiphon pisum in Yemen ( Starý & Erdelen 1982); Aphis craccivora in Iran ( Rakhshani et al. 2008). In Egypt, Aphidius colemani was recorded by Ali (2014) and Gamal et al. (2022) as one of the potential primary parasitoids of A. craccivora affecting faba bean . It was also recorded in Egypt as a natural enemy parasitizing several aphid species associated with other economic crops such as cereal aphids (Ghanim & Adly 1983; Abdel Rahman et al. 2000; El-Heneidy & Abdel-Samad 2001; El-Heneidy et al. 2001–2004; Sobhy et al. 2004; El-Fatih 2006; Slman 2006; Gadallah et al. 2017), cucumber aphid ( Aphis gossypii ) ( Eid et al. 2018); peach leaf aphid ( Hyalopterus pruni ) (Goeff)) ( Ibrahim & Amal 1993); and on aphids affecting pear and mango leaves ( Aphis gossypii ) ( El-Gantiry et al. 2009).