North-Western Journal of Zoology Vol. 6, No. 2, 2010, pp.255-261 P-ISSN: 1584-9074, E-ISSN: 1843-5629 Article No.: 061124 The genus Metaphycus Mercet (Hym.: Encyrtidae) of the Iranian fauna with description of a new species Hosseinali LOTFALIZADEH Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research Center of Tabriz, Azarbaijan-e Sharghi, Iran. E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] Abstract. Eleven species of Metaphycus Mercet (Hym.: Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) are listed for Ira- nian fauna. A new record is presented and a new species is described as M. davoodii Lotfalizadeh sp. nov. reared from Coccus hesperidum L. (Hem.: Coccidae). Illustrations and discussion of affinities of the new species with its close relatives are presented. Key words: Metaphycus davoodii sp. nov., Encyrtidae, new species, Coccidae, parasitoid, Iran. Introduction by Zeya & Hayat (1993). Species of the Nearctic region were studied by Noyes & Hanson The Encyrtidae (Hym.: Chalcidoidea) is one of (1996). Recently, a review of European species the largest families within the Chalcidoidea (Guerrieri & Noyes 2000) has contributed to with approximately 4000 nominal species the knowledge of this genus in the Palaearctic among 483 genera classified in two subfamilies region. Species of this genus are typically pri- (Noyes 2010). Fallahzadeh and Japoshvili mary endoparasitoids that live on hemipterous (2010) listed 93 species in 32 genera of encyr- families Asterolecaniidae, Coccidae, Cerococ- tids for Iranian fauna and recently Lotfalizadeh cidae, Diaspididae, Eriococcidae, Keriidae, (2010) increased this list to 102 species, corrcet- Kermesidae, Pseudococcidae and Psyllidae ing some misidentifications and adding some (Hemiptera) (Myartseva 1988, Noyes & Han- new records. The genus Metaphycus Mercet, son 1996, Guerrieri & Noyes 2000, Guerrieri with about 452 species worldwide, is a speciose 2006).