Diversity of lepidopteran stemborers and their parasitoids on maize and wild host plants in the rain forest of Kisangani, DR Congo Onésime Mubenga Kankonda & Benjamin Dudu Akaibe & George Otieno Ong’amo & Bruno-Pierre Le Ru Received: 6 July 2016 /Accepted: 1 January 2017 /Published online: 11 January 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract Lepidopteran stemborers are considered as the most important insect pests of cereal crops in Sub- Saharan Africa. However, limited information exists on stemborers and their parasitoids in the rain forest of the DR Congo. In order to enhance the understanding of the pest ecology, sampling in both cultivated and wild hab- itats has been recommended as a bottom line to any action aiming at the design of pest management mea- sures. Following this recommendation, a survey was carried out in the rain forest of the DR Congo on maize and wild host plants. We collected eighteen stemborer and one earborer species belonging to 5 families. Five species were found feeding on maize while 18 species fed on wild host plants. Busseola fusca was the commonest species feeding on maize which accounted for 50.1%. At least 20 parasitoids species distributed as 15 species on maize and 16 species in the wild habitats were recovered during this study. Cotesia sesamiae, Enicospilus ruscus and Sturmiopsis parasitica accounted for 99.8% of interactions within parasitoid community. Out of nineteen wild host plants encoun- tered, Pennisetum purpureum and Vossia cuspidata were the most speciose grasses in terms of both parasit- oids and stemborers. The implications of such diversity and network structure are discussed. Keywords Natural enemy . Wild habitats . Ecological network . Megathrysus maximus . Guineo-Congolian forest Introduction Lepidopteran stemborers are considered as the most important insect pests of cereal crops in Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, on maize ( Zea mays L.) (Cyperales: Poaceae), yield losses resulting from stemborer feeding range between 5 and 73% of potential yield (Seshu-Reddy and Walker 1990; De Groote et al. 2003). However, the importance of these losses varies greatly among ecological zones in relation to factors such as the composition of stemborer populations and local climatic conditions (Bosque-Pérez and Mareck 1990). In Kenya, East Africa, the crambid Chilo Phytoparasitica (2017) 45:57–69 DOI 10.1007/s12600-017-0561-6 O. M. Kankonda (*) : B. D. Akaibe Laboratory of Ecology and Management of Animal Resources, Faculty of Sciences and Biodiversity Monitoring Center, University of Kisangani, P.O. Box 2012, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo e-mail: kankonda65@yahoo.fr G. O. Ong’amo : B.<P. Le Ru icipe - African Insect Science for Food and Health, P. O. Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya G. O. Ong’amo School of Biological Science, College of Physical and Biological Sciences (Chiromo Campus), University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya B.<P. Le Ru IRD/CRNS UMR IRD 247 EGCE, Laboratoire Evolution Génomes Comportement et Ecologie, CNRS, Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France B.<P. Le Ru Université Paris Sud 11, 91405 Orsay cedex, France