Megaselia scalaris (Loew, 1866)

Karami, Amene, Talebi, Ali Asghar, Gilasian, Ebrahim, Fathipour, Yaghoub & Mehrabadi, Mohammad, 2023, Native parasitoids of the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Drury, 1773) (Lepidoptera, Erebidae), an invasive alien pest in northern Iran, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 9 (1), pp. 81-101 : 88-90

Megaselia scalaris (Loew, 1866) ( Fig. 3C)

For taxonomical and morphological characters of this species see Disney (2008), Disney and Sinclair (2008), Brown and Oliver (2007).

Material examined. Iran, Guilan province, Rezvanshahr, Paresar, Sandian , (37°57′22.70″ N, 49°12′82.95″ E), 02.ix.2019, 5♂, 3♀; on pupae of Hyphantria cunea , leg. A. Karami.

Distribution in Iran. Alborz ( Zamani et al., 2005), Zanjan ( Ghavami & Djalilvand, 2015), Fars ( Sadeghi et al., 2013), Guilan ( Ejlali et al., 2008; current study).

General distribution. Albania, Andorra, Angola, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, France, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela ( Brown & Oliver, 2007; Disney, 2008; Wakid, 2008; Disney et al., 2010; Seebens et al., 2017; Cham et al., 2018; Khameneh et al., 2018; Debnath & Roy, 2019) ( Fig. 4H).

Hosts. Lepidoptera : Hyphantria cunea (Drury, 1773) ( Erebidae ), Peridroma saucia (Hübner, 1808) ( Noctuidae ); Diptera : Aneomochtherus mundus (Loew, 1849) ( Asilidae ), Palaeosepsis sp. ( Sepsidae ); Hemiptera : Triatoma brasiliensis Neiva, 1911 ( Reduviidae ); Hymenoptera : Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758 ( Apidae ); Blattodea : Macrotermes gilvus (Hagen, 1858) ( Termitidae ); Ixodida : Dermacentor nitens Neumann, 1897 ( Ixodidae ); Rhipicephalus microplus Canestrini, 1888 ( Ixodidae ); Otobius megnini Dugès, 1883 ( Argasidae ); Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius, 1794 ( Ixodidae ); Orthoptera : Zonocerus variegatus (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Pyrgomorphidae ); Coleoptera : Curculio caryae Horn, 1873 ( Curculionidae ); Macrodactylus marinus ( Scarabaeidae ); Araneae : Brachypelma vagans (Ausserer, 1875) ( Theraphosidae ); Mantodea : Parastagmatoptera tessellata Saussure & Zehntner, 1894 ( Mantidae ); Agaricales : Agaricus bisporus (Lange, 1946) ( Agaricaceae ); Scorpiones : Mesobuthus eupeus (Koch, 1839) ( Buthidae ) ( Gregorio & Leonide, 1980; Harrison & Gardner, 1991; Arredondo-Bernal & Trujillo-Arriaga, 1994; Downie et al., 1995; Zamani et al., 2005; Costa et al., 2007; Ejlali et al., 2008; Disney, 2008; Abdi Goodarzi et al., 2012; Mongiardino Koch et al., 2013; Machkour-M'Rabet et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2017; Marchiori, 2020; Noknoy et al., 2020).

Species frequency and rate of parasitism. Four parasitoid species were found as the major insect parasitoids of the fall webworm. These were Chouioia cunea Yang, 1989 (Hym., Eulophidae ), Psychophagus omnivorus (Walker, 1835) ( Pteromalidae ), Compsilura concinnata (Meigen, 1824) and Exorista larvarum (Linnaeus, 1758)

( Diptera , Tachinidae ) which appeared to have considerable influence on the population of this pest. Among the hymenopterous parasitoid species, C. cunea and P. omnivorus showed the highest number of H. cunea parasitoids in the collected pupae samples. Of these, C. cunea was the most abundant parasitoid species and may be important in the initial regulation of moth populations. Exoriata larvarum and C. concinnata were also the dominant larval parasitoids of this pest. Compsilura concinnata occupied the position as the second most abundant parasitoid of H. cunea . The gregarious endoparasitoid E. larvarum , despite the lower population than C. concinnata , appeared to have considerable influence on the population of this moth pest. The rest of the species were in relatively low densities, with fewer than ten individuals each and did not play an important role as regulating agents of H. cunea ( Fig. 5). There was a significant difference in the contribution of each parasitoid species to overall parasitism (66.3%) achieved by the parasitoid complex. Chouioia cunea was the most predominant and effective species with the highest parasitism percentage among collected parasitoids (24.33%) and is followed by P. omnivorus (15.5%) and C. concinnata (13.73%). Exorista larvarum was the fourth most prevalent parasitoid recovered in this study (12.57%) which can be a major factor for the population dynamics of this pest. But the remaining species were rare, with fewer than ten individuals each and overall represent 0.53% of the parasitoids reared from H. cunea ( Fig. 6).