ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Tachinidae

 Common name: tachinid flies, tachina flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Tachinidae include:

• Suborder Cyclorrhapha: antennae 3-segmented, aristate; vein Rs 2-branched.

Division Schizophora: frontal suture present.
Section Calyptratae: calypters well developed.
• Often resembling house flies, but are usually larger, hairier, and more robust.
• Postscutellum well developed, appearing as a prominent lobe beneath the scutellum.
• Arista usually bare, but plumose in some species.
• Bristles present on both the hypopleuron and pteropleuron.
• Abdominal terga often overlap the sterna.

• Over 1,300 species in North America, the second largest family of Diptera.
• Larvae are parasitoids of other insects, primarily larvae of Lepidoptera, sawflies, and beetles.
• Adults feed on liquids such as nectar and the honeydew of aphids and scales.
• During outbreaks of defoliators such as the gypsy moth, many persons are disturbed by the abundance of the friendly, nonbiting, house-fly-appearing adults.

• Page 306 and plate 14 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 352 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 571 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 513-521 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• The Tachinid Times Newsletter