The first report of the genus and species of Leptomastidea alleni (Hym.: Encyrtidae) from Iran

In the study of natural enemies of mealybugs (Hem.: Pseudococcidae) in Fars province, Iran, a large number of parasitized mealybugs were collected, and the emerged encyrtid species identified as Leptomastidea alleni Noyes & Hayat, 1994. The identification was confirmed by Zhihong Xu, Institute of Applied Entomology, Zhejiang University of China. The genus and species is a new record for Iran. This is also the first report of L. alleni from Palearctic region. This species was collected from Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead) on Citrus sinensis (L.), C. aurantium (L.) and Althaea sp., and from Planococcus vovae (Nasonov) on Cupressus sp.