ON A COLLECTION OF CHALCIDOIDEA (HYMENOPTERA) FROM KASARAGOD DISTRICT (KERALA STATE)

Ofihe parasitic hymenoptera, the Superfamily Chalcidoidea forms one of the most important groups of natural enemies of injurious insect pests, especially those. belonging to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Homoptera and Diptera. These minute wasps play an important role in biological and integrated control of serious pests. In many cases, Chalcids supress populations of potential pest species in the field, regulating their numbers and preventing them from reaching a level of economic importance.


INTRODUCTION
Ofihe parasitic hymenoptera, the Superfamily Chalcidoidea forms one of the most important groups of natural enemies of injurious insect pests, especially those.belonging to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Homoptera and Diptera.These minute wasps play an important role in biological and integrated control of serious pests.In many cases, Chalcids supress populations of potential pest species in the field, regulating their numbers and preventing them from reaching a level of economic importance.
The Chalcidoidea are cosmopoliton and according to the recent classification the superfamily is divided into 21 families (Boucek, 1988).The number of valid genera is most recently estimated to be about 2000 (Noyes, 1990) with approximately 70,000 world species.Their great diversity of form and colour, and their biological intricacy and specialisation combine to make them or:te of the most marvellously rewarding groups of the "insects to study.
The Chalcidoid fauna of India is poorly known.Saunders and Westwood described.several fig inhabiting chalcids from Ceylon and India during the last centuary.Ramakrishna Ayyar made extensive collections of Indian Chalcids, which were later described by Gahan, Rohwer, Weld, Ferriere and others.In recent years intensive studies on Indian fauna were made by Boucek, Subba Rao, Narendran, Hayat, Farooqi, Joseph, Alam Agarwal, Shafee etc.
Th~ material on which the present paper is based is collected from the Kasaragod district by the author and others in the recent past.Information available in literature dealing with the Chalcidoid fauna of Kasaragod district (Mukerjee (1981), Mani (1989), Narendran (1989Narendran ( , 1994) ) are also included.
Distribution: India (Kerala), U.P. (Aligarh), A.P. (Tenali) and Thailand.Mukerjee,. 1981 The species.is described from Poro Notth (North Bengal).Narendran (1994) reported its host as .stemgallon rice.Distribution: All over Oriental Region, West Iran, and 'Papua New Guinea.Waterston, 1922 It is an uncommon species.Narendran (1989) reported few specimens of it from the different parts of Kerala.From the Kasaragod district it is reported here for the first time.
10. Brachymeria euploeae (Westwood, 1837) This is a common species, parasitising v"arious lepidoptera.This is the first report of it from Kasaragod district.
12. Kriechbaumerella titus; Narendran, 1989 It is an uncommon species described from Kerala.This forms the first report of it from the Kasaragod district.Distribution: India (KeraJa), Pondicherry (Karaikkal) and Java.Masi, 1929 It is an uncommon specIes.Husain & Agarwal (1982) reported its host as Spilosoma sp.(Arcliidae ).Distribution : Africa and Indo-Australian region.

Family PTEROMALIDAE
16. Propicroscytus miriflCus (Girault), 1915b This is a very common species, parasitising gall midges in rice and stems of some other grasses.
Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Australia, S.China and E. Malaysia.Sureshan & Narendran, 1990 (Fig. I-~) This species is described from Kerala and this fonns the first record of it from Kasaragod district and the subsequent record after the description.

Metastenus concinnus Walker, 1834
This species is mainly known from Europe as a parasite of coccidophagous cocci nell ids.Boucek et al: (1979) reported it from Kerala, Kottayam.Distribution : India (Kerala), Europe.

Dinarmus acutus (Thomson), 1878
This is a European species which was recorded carlier from India under its Synonym' Bruchobius mayri (masi) by Mani (1939).It is a parasite of Bruchids.

Notoglyptus scuteUaris (Dodd
Farooqi and Subba Rao (1986) recorded the species as N. vires,cens Masi from India.This is an uncommon species.This is the first record of this species from Kerala.
Distribution : India (Delhi, Kerala, U.P.), Italy, Japan and, South Africa.Boucek, 1965 Until the report of this species from Indian subregion by Boucek et al (1979) it was only known from the Mediterranean subregion.
Distribution : India, Australia, Czechoslovakia and Algeria 24.Psilocera vinayaki ,Sureshan & Narendran, 1994 (Fig. 6 .. 8) The original description of this species is based on the female collected from Kasaragod.It closely resembles the Pakistan species P. ghanii Subba Rao, but differs distinctly as mentioned in the description.

SUMMARY
This paper deals with 24 species under 17 genera and 4 families of Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) from the Kasaragod district of Kerala (India).Of these, 18 specie's are reported for the first time from the district.The species Chrysochalcissa indica Narendran (Torymidae) is reported for the first time from Kerala after its original description from Coimbatore (T.Nadu).The genera Chlorocytus, Dinarmus, No tog lyp tus, Psilocera and Sphegigaster (Pteromalidae) are reported for the first.time from Kerala.