LAUSR

Abstract. Little is known about parasitoids that attack insect pests on wild host plants, including wild teosintes. Sentinel teosinte plants with eggs of the specialist herbivore pest, the corn leafhopper, Dalbulus maidis (DeLong) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), were used to attract and capture egg parasitoid species in natural habitats of annual teosinte Zea mays ssp. parviglumis Iltis & Doebley, which is the direct ancestor of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.), and perennial teosinte Zea perennis (Hitchc.) Reeves & Mangelsdorf in central Mexico. In annual teosinte, eggs of D. maidis were parasitized by Anagrus incarnatus Haliday and Anagrus columbi Perkins (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), as well as Paracentrobia sp. near subflava (Girault) and Pseudoligosita sp. near longifrangiata (Viggiani) (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae); in perennial teosinte, they were parasitized by A. incarnatus and Pseudoligosita sp. near longifrangiata. All the egg parasitoids, recorded for the first time from wild teosintes, have been previously known from the same leafhopper pest on cultivated maize. Thus, their conservation in wild teosinte habitats may be important for enhancing natural biological control of the corn leafhopper in adjacent maize fields.