Habrobracon hebetor (Say, 1836)

Mifsud, David, Farrugia, Lucia & Shaw, Mark R., 2019, Braconid and ichneumonid (Hymenoptera) parasitoid wasps of Lepidoptera from the Maltese Islands, Zootaxa 4567 (1), pp. 47-60 : 53

Habrobracon hebetor (Say, 1836)

Material examined: MALTA, Mosta, 6.ix.–1. x.2016, 13 exx., emerged from Plodia interpunctella ( Lepidoptera : Pyralidae ) feeding on bird seed mixture which was collected on 31.viii.2016, LF, DMC, NMS; Wied Għollieqa, 30.ix.–17.xi.2016, 73 exx., emerged from larvae of Apomyelois ceratoniae feeding on Ceratonia siliqua seed pods, LF, DMC, NMS [parasitoids determined by Mark Shaw; hosts dteremined by Michael Zerafa].

Notes: This species was previously recorded from Malta by Papp (2015) from 1♂ & 1♀ associated with stored beeswax without host data. It is a small, gregarious idiobiont ectoparasitoid that attacks final instar larvae of many weakly concealed Lepidoptera from different families. It is commonly reared from Plodia interpunctella and has also been recorded from Apomyelois ceratoniae ( Yu et al., 2012) .