Beetles infesting pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) in Tunisia and their auxiliary fauna

Numerous pests, like beetles, which have expanded widely due to climate change, harm pistachio crops. Using morphological and barcoding methods, we looked into the biodiversity of pistachio beetles and their parasitoids. Seven different species of insects were found in pistachio branches. Two molecular markers, the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and the region (D2-D3) of the nuclear ribosomal RNA operon's 28S rRNA gene, were used to identify these insects. Five species a similarity =97% were identified. For the remaining two species, sequence identities did not exceed 93% and their identification was only made at the genus level. Our findings indicated that the four following species of beetles develop on pistachio trees: Chaetoptelius vestitus (Mulsant & Rey, 1861) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), Carphoborus perrisi (Chapuis, 1869) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), Phoracanthas emipunctata (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) and Sinoxylon sp. (Coleoptera, Bostrichidae). Furthermore, three species were identified as parasitizing these beetles: Doryctes leucogaster (Nees, 1834) (Hymenoptera, Braconidae), Cheiropachus quadrum (Fabricius, 1787) (Hymenoptera, Pteromalidae) and Ecphylus sp. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae).