Parasitoids and fungal pathogens of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phyllonorycter issikii</Emphasis> (Kumata, 1963) from Bulgaria

The lime leaf miner, Phyllonorycter issikii, is a moth species native to East Asia, which recently invaded considerable part of Europe. A study on the natural enemies of this invasive species was conducted in Bulgaria. Tilia cordata leaves infested with the lime leaf miner were collected in 2015 and 2016 in two public parks in Sofia. A total of eleven eulophid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) belonging to three subfamilies - Entedoninae, Eulophinae and Tetrastichinae, and one braconid species (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) were recorded. In addition, one unidentified ichneumonid species was reared. Minotetrastichus platanellus was the most abundant species in the samples comprising 76.88% of the parasitoids reared from collected immature and pupal stages of Ph. issikii. It is followed by Sympiesis gordius (6.53%) and S. sericeicornis (6.03%). Three new host-parasitoid associations were established. The entomopathogenic fungi Beuveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae (Hypocreales) were isolated for the first time from cadavers of Ph. issikii larvae and pupae. Based on the presented observation we hypothesized that the lime leaf miner can produce three generations in Bulgaria.