Hi Asma,

It could be better that you provide length of the body and its important parts and information about the place where you recorded this specimen (its host if possible). But based on the general morphology, this may be most probably one of the parasitoids Spalangia endius Walker or Spalangia cameroni Perkins (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), however confirmation by a specialist (systematics of the Pteromalidae) is required in this case.

Find useful links about species of Spalangia below:

http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=206324

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1206&context=entomologyfacpub

Cheers

The specie is from Tunisia, i didn't do any measurement i just took a picture because i found it in my collection of wasp species.

Here is a discussion of distinguishing between Spalangia spp, and the differences between various parasitoid groups determined by using cuticular hydrocarbon analysis by capillary gas chromatography. Sorry if the Spalagia paper did not make it into press: these tin parasitoids were indistinguishable by inspection, but easily separated sing chemical characters from individual dried specimens. Geden was the specialist at USDA-ARS, Gainesville FL .

[email protected] other related papers- before DNA!

Geden, C.J., U.R. Bernier, D. A. Carlson and B.D. Sutton. Identification of Muscidifurax spp., parasitoids of muscoid flies, by composition patterns of cuticular hydrocarbons. Biol. Control 12:200-207. 1998.

Bernier, U.R., D. A. Carlson, and C. J. Geden. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of the cuticular hydrocarbons from parasitic wasps of the genus Muscidifurax. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 9:320-332. 1998.

Carlson, D.A., Bernier, U.R., and C. J. Geden. Distinctive hydrocarbons of four spp of the parasitoid wasp Spalangia. (Hymenoptera:Pteromalidae). J. Chem Ecol. (Sub. 10/01, rej. 06/02, resub. 12/02)

Thank you so much Dr. Carlson for the answer. I will search for those publications. In fact besides my PhD subject, i collect other wasps for my own collection of Hymenopteran wasps, for this reason the identification is important even to the Genus level.