| Tachina grossa | |
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| Tachina grossa | |
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| Subgenus: | Tachina |
| Species: | T. grossa |
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| Tachina grossa | |
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Tachina grossa or giant tachinid fly is a very large tachinid fly. [1]
This species can be found throughout most of Western Europe, east to Asia and in Mongolia. [2] [3]
These flies mainly inhabit dry open meadows, peat land, moors, forests, heaths and gardens.
Tachina grossa can reach a length of 15–19 millimetres (0.6–0.7 in). This species of fly is one of the largest throughout much of its range and is the largest tachinid in Europe. These flies are very distinctive, being hairy and with a black thorax and abdomen. In flight they resemble a bumblebee. The inflated, curved, all-black abdomen is covered with stiff, straight bristles, especially at the end of the abdominal segments. The head is bright yellow, with occipital yellow bristles. The large compound eyes are dark brown. The forehead forms a sharp angle at the base of the antennae. Maxillary palpi are thin, filiform. Wings are hyaline, yellowish-brown at the base. [4] [5] [6] [7]
The adult flight period is from late June to early September. In the UK there is usually only one generation per year, though in southern Europe there may be two generations per summer season, though this has not yet been verified. Adults feed on nectar and pollen of flowers.
Like most tachinid flies, the female lays eggs on other living insect larva, the fly larvae then develop inside the living host, devouring it and eventually killing it. Its main hosts are the large hairy Lepidopteran caterpillars, particularly the oak eggar moth ( Lasiocampa quercus ), the fox moth ( Macrothylacia rubi ) and other Lasiocampidae. [4]
The Tachinidae are a large and variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. Over 1,300 species have been described in North America alone. Insects in this family commonly are called tachinid flies or simply tachinids. As far as is known, they all are protelean parasitoids, or occasionally parasites, of arthropods, usually other insects. The family is known from many habitats in all zoogeographical regions and is especially diverse in South America.
The Conopidae, also known as the thick-headed flies, are a family of flies within the Brachycera suborder of Diptera, and the sole member of the superfamily Conopoidea. Flies of the family Conopidae are distributed worldwide in all the biogeographic realms except for the poles and many of the Pacific islands. About 800 species in 47 genera are described worldwide, about 70 of which are found in North America. The majority of conopids are black and yellow, or black and white, and often strikingly resemble wasps, bees, or flies of the family Syrphidae, themselves notable bee mimics. A conopid is most frequently found at flowers, feeding on nectar with its proboscis, which is often long.
Antheraea polyphemus, the Polyphemus moth, is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths. It is a tan-colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 in). The most notable feature of the moth is its large, purplish eyespots on its two hindwings. The eyespots give it its name – from the Greek myth of the cyclops Polyphemus. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1776. The species is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and the United States. The caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months. Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants.
The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name "robber flies" reflects their expert predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.
Hyalophora cecropia, the cecropia moth, is North America's largest native moth. It is a member of the family Saturniidae, or giant silk moths. Females have been documented with a wingspan of five to seven inches or more. These moths can be found all across North America as far west as Washington and north into the majority of Canadian provinces. Cecropia moth larvae are most commonly found on maple trees, but they have also been found on cherry and birch trees among many others. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Eristalis tenax, the common drone fly, is a common, migratory, cosmopolitan species of hover fly. It is the most widely distributed syrphid species in the world, and is known from all regions except the Antarctic. It has been introduced into North America and is widely established. It can be found in gardens and fields in Europe and Australia. It has also been found in the Himalayas.
Pollenia rudis, the common cluster fly, is a species of fly in the family Polleniidae. Pollenia rudis is also known as the attic fly, the loft fly, pollenie du lombric [French], and the buckwheat fly. During the autumn and winter months, Pollenia rudis can be found overwintering inside attics or lofts. This sluggish species can be found “clustering” near the interior windows of a warm structure.
Phasia hemiptera is a fly belonging to the family Tachinidae.
Synthesiomyia nudiseta is one of the largest flies in the family Muscidae. The fly has a pair of forewings; the paired hind wings have been reduced to halteres that help with stability and movement during flight. Key characteristics of this species include plumose segmented aristae, well-developed calypters, and sternopleural bristles. Synthesiomyia nudiseta is a forensically important species because it is necrophilous and can therefore help determine the time of colonization for the post mortem interval with its known life cycle.
Tachina fera is a species of fly in the genus Tachina of the family Tachinidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761.
Empis tessellata is a species of dance fly, in the fly family Empididae. It is included in the subgenus Euempis.
Compsilura concinnata is a parasitoid native to Europe that was introduced to North America in 1906 to control the population of an exotic forest, univoltine, spongy moth named Lymantria dispar. It is an endoparasitoid of larvae and lives with its host for most of its life. Eventually the parasitoid ends up killing the host and occasionally eating it. It attacks over 200 host species, mainly insects from the Orders: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. Since this parasite has the ability to attack many different types of hosts, the organism has spilled over from the intended forest systems into other areas, like agricultural fields, affecting cabbage pests including the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia); the cabbage worm ; and even other invasive species such as the brown-tail moth. However, it also attacks native, non-pest insects such as the Cecropia moth and American moon moth.
Cylindromyia interrupta is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae.
Cylindromyia brassicaria is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae.
Cylindromyia bicolor is a European species of fly in the family Tachinidae.
Zophomyia temula is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae.
Nemorilla floralis is a species of tachinid fly.
Tachina casta is a species of fly in the genus Tachina of the family Tachinidae.
Tachina (Nowickia) ferox is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae first described by Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer in 1809.
Exorista mella is a tachinid fly of the genus Ezorista within the family Tachinidae of the order Diptera. They are typically found in the United States and Canada. Within the U.S in the state of Arizona they have been found in both mountainous and agricultural regions. E. mella is a parasitoid fly, a polyphagous generalist which parasitizes a variety of hosts.
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