Gelis carbonarius (de Stefani, 1884)

Materials examined: MALTA, It-Torri l-Abjad, 25. xii.2005, 1 ♀, captured laying into a case of Coleophora semicinerea Straudinger ( Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae), MZ, MSC [parasitoid determined by Martin Schwarz; host determined by Michael Zerafa].

Notes: New record for the Maltese Islands. Gelis carbonarius has been reported as a parasitoid of Braconidae that are associated with Lepidoptera (Stefanescu et al., 2009; Frago et al., 2012). Gelis carbonarius is probably polyphagous and can be either a primary parasitoid or a pseudohyperparasitoid, similarly to the closely related species Gelis agilis (Fabricius, 1775) (M. Schwarz, pers comm., 2017). Gelis species are idiobiont ectoparasitoids.