The present work was conducted during 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons to survey the predaceous insect species inhabiting certain medicinal plants chamomile,(Matricaria chamomilla) coriander,(Coriandrum sativum L) Fennel, (Foeniculum vulgare Miller) and caraway,( Carum carvi, L ) The predaceous insects were collected by using the sweeping net and yellow sticky traps. Results showed that the sweeping net proved to be the best method to collect all the tested predaceous insect species. Yellow sticky traps have a remarkable selectivity for attracting certain predaceous species.
A survey of the insect predators inhabiting, coriander, chamomile, fennel and caraway plantations assured that the most dominant predators were Syrphus corollae, Coccinella. undecimpunctata, Chrysoperla . carnea and P aederus. alfierii.
The insect predators showed different degree of preferability toward the different host plants. However, the collected hoverfly, Syrphus corollae exhibited high preferrability to chamomile in comparison with coriander, fennel and caraway plants., while, coccinellid, C. undecimpunctata showed the highest preferability to coriander. The chrysopid species, Chry. carnea exhibited high preferrability to fennel and caraway plants in comparison with the other tested host plants. In addition, the stapheilind, P. alfieri showed prferrability to fennel plants. The seasonal abundance of the predators population revealed that S. corollae, C. undecimpunctata and Chry. carnea exhibited 2-3 peaks, while, P. alfierii. showed only one peak of seasonal abundance,. during the season of investigation