New records of family Chalcididae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) on vegetables ecosystem from New Delhi, India

Chalcidids are important primary parasitoids for controlling several economic insect pests, and some are secondary parasitoids. These specimens were collected by using different traps during the period extending from November 2021 to October 2022, from various vegetable crops grown in different localities at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi. The larvae and pupa of the pests were brought to the lab and reared for the emergence of parasitoids at 25 +/- 0.5 degrees C and relative humidity of 65 +/- 5%. Eleven species belonging to four genera in three subfamilies were identified: Brachymeria bengalensis (Cameron, 1897); B. hime (Habu, 1960); B. kassalensis (Kirby, 1886); B. lasus (Walker, 1841); B. minuta (Linnaeus, 1767); B. podagrica (Fabricius, 1787) (Brachymeriinae); Dirhinus anthracia (Walker, 1846); D. auratus Ashmead, 1905 (Dirhininae) and Antrocephalus sepyra (Walker, 1846); Kriechbaumerella kraussi (Narendran, 1989); K. rufimanus (Walker, 1860) (Haltichellinae). Among them six species are newly recorded from New Delhi. On the other hand, B. hime was recorded for the first time as a parasite on Leucinodes orbonalis Guen & eacute;e (Lepidoptera, Crambidae).