Parasitoids play the positive role in aphids control management by keeping the population of aphids below the economic threshold. The pomegranate aphid, Aphis punicae is attacked by several parasitoids which mostly belong to Aphidiinae subfamily. The identification of parasitoids and hyperparasitoids is problematic due to their small size and ambiguous morphological characteristics. The analysis of molecular data of DNA sequences has been suggested as a complementary approach to the classical methods to identify biocontrol agents. In the present study, active parasitoids and hyperparasitoids of the pomegranate aphid collected from Razavi Khorasan province were identified using morphological characters and analysis of two gene sequences including COI and 28S. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using Maximum parsimony and Bayesian methods. The identified parasitoids were Binodoxys angelicae, Lysiphlebus fabarum, Ephedrus persicae, and the hyperparasitoids were Syrphophagus aphidivorus, Alloxysta sp. and Pachyneuron sp. We demonstrated that the mitochondrial COI gene was superior for the identification of these insects compared to the nuclear 28S (D2- region) and that it was compatible with morphological studies. This is the first study on molecular identification of the parasitoids and hyperparasitoids on pomegranate aphids in Iran.

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