but unfortunately, it depends mostly on environmental factors including rainfall and
also pest loss. Iran located at one of the driest areas of the world, so wheat
importation is unavoidable some years. Common sunn pest Eurygaster integriceps
Puton is the most serious insect pest of cereals and control measurements mainly
focused on this key pest. However, the economic importance of the pest is not the
same everywhere. It seems that the central plateau of Iran is the main hotspot of the
pest throughout the world. The most serious invasions occur in central provinces
such as Tehran (Varamin is a typical infested area), Markazi, Isfahan, Fars and rainfed fields of western Iran such as Kermanshah, Hamedan, Kordestan and Lorestan
(Radjabi 2000). Unfortunately, both groups are direct pests of grain and kernels.
Considering the strategic and economic importance of these crops in Iran, the role of
any control agent of key pests (such as the egg parasitoids) to suppress those pest
populations will be obvious. Furthermore, the role of the egg parasitoids is outstanding among other natural enemies because pest suppression occurs prior to damage
stage.
8.2 Iranian Platygastroidea
More than 70 species of this family were reported by researchers in Iran (Table 8.1)
which Telenomus spp. and Trissolcus spp. are prevalent genera. Nevertheless, a
comprehensive revision is needed. Some references in Table 8.1 (for example,
Modarres-Awal 1997 and Ghahari et al. 2015) are checklists that just reflect reports
of the other researchers, so they may repeat some incorrect data. As an early work,
Safavi (1973), published an identification key to distinguishing six species of
Trissolcus using some simple characters such as the presence of parapsidal grooves
(notauli) and leg coloration. This identification key probably was used by subsequent users and lead to some mistakes in identifications because the key was very
simplified. For example, all the species with yellowish legs in semistriatus speciesgroup were distinguished as T. basalis. Consequently, some reports of T. basalis
may be belonging to relative species such as T. djadetshkoe, T. pseudoturesis, etc.
Just following to translation of Kozlov’s (1988) key to English and further to Persian
by Radjabi (2000) a more comprehensive key to Palearctic Platygastroidea became
available. But this did not meet requirements of an intact identification because often
access to holotypes or other type specimens was impossible to most Iranian
researchers. As another example, the distinction of T. semistriatus from T. grandis
commonly has been based on yellowish hind tibiae in former species. But one should
not forget that T. grandis specimens tend to present lighter hind tibiae in warmer
seasons (particularly in males) and separation of these two species with highly
emphasize on leg coloration may be misleading. Finally, the absence of enough
familiarity with key characters and different interpretations about one character by
different users may be another source of the mistake. The present identification keys
are ancient and relatively confusing for separating characters such as a relative ratio
of the post marginal vein (pm) to the stigmal vein (st). For example in Kozlov’s key
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S. Iranipour
also pest loss. Iran located at one of the driest areas of the world, so wheat
importation is unavoidable some years. Common sunn pest Eurygaster integriceps
Puton is the most serious insect pest of cereals and control measurements mainly
focused on this key pest. However, the economic importance of the pest is not the
same everywhere. It seems that the central plateau of Iran is the main hotspot of the
pest throughout the world. The most serious invasions occur in central provinces
such as Tehran (Varamin is a typical infested area), Markazi, Isfahan, Fars and rainfed fields of western Iran such as Kermanshah, Hamedan, Kordestan and Lorestan
(Radjabi 2000). Unfortunately, both groups are direct pests of grain and kernels.
Considering the strategic and economic importance of these crops in Iran, the role of
any control agent of key pests (such as the egg parasitoids) to suppress those pest
populations will be obvious. Furthermore, the role of the egg parasitoids is outstanding among other natural enemies because pest suppression occurs prior to damage
stage.
8.2 Iranian Platygastroidea
More than 70 species of this family were reported by researchers in Iran (Table 8.1)
which Telenomus spp. and Trissolcus spp. are prevalent genera. Nevertheless, a
comprehensive revision is needed. Some references in Table 8.1 (for example,
Modarres-Awal 1997 and Ghahari et al. 2015) are checklists that just reflect reports
of the other researchers, so they may repeat some incorrect data. As an early work,
Safavi (1973), published an identification key to distinguishing six species of
Trissolcus using some simple characters such as the presence of parapsidal grooves
(notauli) and leg coloration. This identification key probably was used by subsequent users and lead to some mistakes in identifications because the key was very
simplified. For example, all the species with yellowish legs in semistriatus speciesgroup were distinguished as T. basalis. Consequently, some reports of T. basalis
may be belonging to relative species such as T. djadetshkoe, T. pseudoturesis, etc.
Just following to translation of Kozlov’s (1988) key to English and further to Persian
by Radjabi (2000) a more comprehensive key to Palearctic Platygastroidea became
available. But this did not meet requirements of an intact identification because often
access to holotypes or other type specimens was impossible to most Iranian
researchers. As another example, the distinction of T. semistriatus from T. grandis
commonly has been based on yellowish hind tibiae in former species. But one should
not forget that T. grandis specimens tend to present lighter hind tibiae in warmer
seasons (particularly in males) and separation of these two species with highly
emphasize on leg coloration may be misleading. Finally, the absence of enough
familiarity with key characters and different interpretations about one character by
different users may be another source of the mistake. The present identification keys
are ancient and relatively confusing for separating characters such as a relative ratio
of the post marginal vein (pm) to the stigmal vein (st). For example in Kozlov’s key
294
S. Iranipour