© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
Parasitoids of insects infesting corn poppy capsules in Greece
57
to be certain without any females,
Idiomac-
romerus
sp.
(1 male)
(different from
I. papav-
eris
in the coloration of tibiae), and
Cyrtop-
tyx
sp. (1 male).
A possible scenario is that
P. papaveris
,
I.
papaveris
and
Cyrtoptyx
sp. are parasitoids
of
A. papaveris
, although no
Cyrtoptyx
sp.
has ever been reared from
Aylax
(Figure 1).
Cyrtoptyx
sp. might as well be a hyperparasi-
toid of the torymids.
Idiomacromerus papav-
eris
has been reported to parasitise
A. papav-
eris
(in Croatia, France, Hungary, Romania,
Spain) and
A. minor
(in Andora, France, Ro-
mania, Spain) in
Papaver
galls (Askew
et al.,
2006).
Idiomacromerus papaveris
is widely
distributed from Iran to U.K. (Noyes, 2017).
Some
Cyrtoptyx
species
have been report-
ed to parasitise cynipid gall wasps e.g.
Cyr-
toptyx robustus
(Masi, 1907) on
Cynips disti-
cha
Hartig, 1840 on
Quercus
(Nieves Aldrey,
1982; Bellido and Pujado-Villar, 1999) in
Spain; others are parasitoids of fruit flies, e.g.
Cyrtoptyx latipes
(Rond.) on the olive fruit fly,
Bactrocera oleae
(Rossi) (Diptera: Tephriti-
dae) (Baratella, 2008).
The sampled parasitoid species and their
hosts are associatedwith the natural vegeta-
tion in agricultural systems of different inten-
sity in terms of cultivation and pesticide use,
affecting the abundance and species diver-
sity of spontaneous plants:
P. rhoeas
plants
were located in uncultivated land around
the grape-producing area of Amynteo and
in the intensively cultivated arable crop area
of Voeotia. Our findings highlight the im-
portance of natural or semi-natural areas
for the maintenance of these species. Fur-
ther studies are necessary to clarify the ex-
act trophic relations among the Hymenop-
tera pararasitoids and the hosts found in the
P. rhoeas
capsules, as well as their potential
role in ecosystem services through the bio-
logical control of the corn poppy.
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