Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall, 1896)

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 .

Diagnosis. Body generally dark brown to black, with the following parts yellow: mouth parts, petiole as well as the following metasomal segment, fore legs; antennal scape, pedicel and F1 brownish, rest of antenna dark brown to black; propodeum pale brown. Labial palpus 1-segmented; antenna with 12–13 antennomeres (female); fore wing with vein M+m-cu only partly developed under r-m vein; pterostigma elongate, about 3.5× as long as wide; with conspicuous vein r; setae on wing apex as well as dorsal margin as long as those on wing surface; propodeum smooth, with two divergent short carinae posteriorly; petiole broadly triangular; ovipositor sheath elongated, rounded apically.

Distribution in the MENA: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates.

Comments: This species is widely distributed in the Australasian, Oceanic, Oriental and Palaearctic regions (Yu et al. 2016; Rakhshani et al. 2019). It occurs in most of the Middle Eastern and North African countries (Rakhshani et al. 2019; Gadallah et al. 2022c). It was reported in association with faba bean, V. faba, in the following countries: in Algeria and Iraq, it has been recorded as a primary parasitoid of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae (Al-Azawi 1970; Laamari et al. 2011, 2012; Bandyan et al. 2021); in Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Iran, recorded as effective parasitoid of the cowpea aphid Aphis craccivora (Starý & Sekkat 1987; Mescheloff & Rosen 1990; Aşlan et al. 2004; Rakhshani et al. 2005; Nazari et al. 2012, respectively). It was also recorded in Algeria as being a parasitoid of A. craccivora (Starý et al. 1971), as well as Iraq (Starý 1969; Starý & Kaddou 1971) without referring to a host plant. And recorded as a parasitoid of A. fabae in Algeria (Starý et al. 1971), Morocco (Starý 1962), and Iraq (Starý 1969; Al-Azawi 1970; Starý & Kaddou 1971) without referring to host plant.

In Egypt, it has been recorded as a parasitoid of the cowpea aphid A. craccivora in faba bean in different areas of Egypt (El-Defrawi et al. 2000; Ragab et al. 2002; Abdel-Rahman 2005; Abdel-Samad & Ahmed 2009; Ali 2014; Jabbar et al. 2020). It was also recorded as a parasitoid of the bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) attacking Triticum aestivum (Megahed 2000; Gadallah et al. 2017).