Mantids and associated Chalcidoidea parasitoids in natural areas from Eastern Spain

Mantids (Mantodea) are generalist predatory insects in their nymph and adult stages. The female lays her eggs into an ootheca, which is made of structural proteins and tanning agents, in order to create a protective egg case. Some families of hymenoptera belonging to Chalcidoidea are known as mantid ootheca parasitoids. The vast majority of Torymidae are entomophagous species attacking Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and the gall-formers Diptera and Hymenoptera, but the whole tribe Podagrionini is strictly associated with mantid oothecae, and a few species from Microdontomerini also attack mantid egg cases. Eupelmidae are mainly parasitoids of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Neuroptera, but some species from the subfamily Eupelminae have a range of hosts, including spider sac eggs, Orthoptera egg pods, and the oothecae of Blattodea and Mantodea. The aim of this study is to provide information about the Torymidae and Eupelmidae wasps that act as parasitoids of the mantid species found in several natural parks of the province of Valencia in Eastern Spain. Several mantid oothecae were collected on garrigue vegetation, glued to bushes, in several periods between 2016 and 2024. The oothecae were stored in boxes at room temperature until the emergence of mantid nymphs and parasitoid wasps. Nymphs were returned to their territories. The egg cases belonged to the mantid species Iris oratoria (L., 1758), Mantis religiosa (L., 1758), and Sphodromantis viridis (Forskal, 1775). The parasitoids were species of the torymid genera Podagrion Spinola and Podagrionella Girault and the eupelmid genus Anastatus Motschulsky. Podagrion bouceki Delvare, 2005 was reared from S. viridis, with this being a new parasitoid–host relationship discovered in Spain, while Anastatus maculosus Askew, 2004 was recorded for the first time, emerging from the egg case of I. oratoria. The mantid–parasitoid relationships were indicated.