''Tachina fera'' is a species of

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

in the genus '' Tachina'' of the family

Tachinidae 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 ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1761.

Distribution

This species can be found in the entire

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

, across Europe as far north as

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

and

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

. It is also present in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

North Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...

, east to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Habitat

These flies inhabit the vegetation of humid regions, meadows, woodland, forests, forest edges, clearings, heath and moorland and natural gardens.

Description

''Tachina fera'' can reach a length of ,Insekten Box
/ref> with a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of 16–27 mm.Commanster
/ref> These tachinids show a grayish upperside of the thorax, due to dense pollinosity, with regular black stripes. The abdomen is yellow orange with a wide black dorsal stripe ending in a point . They are bristly on the thorax and abdomen, especially towards the tip, where they have long thorn-shaped, protruding black bristles. Close to the thorax there is a striking, orange-red and shiny 'bump' called postscutellum, with a thin black edge. The head is yellowish colored, with long antennae, whose second segment is yellow, while the third, much shorter, is black. The back of the head shows yellowish hairs and the large compound eyes are red in color. The size of the eyes in relation to the head is sex dependent. The palps of the mouthparts are long, thin and thread like. The wings are slightly yellow tinged, show a brownish yellow veining and are yellow brown at the base. Calyptrae are whitish yellow. The legs are predominantly yellowish, but in the male they are usually dark with a yellow tip. This species is very similar to '' Tachina magnicornis'', that is a little smaller, has a medial dorsal band forming lozenges and that does not terminate in a point.

Biology

There are two generations per year, as this species is

bivoltine Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

. Adults can be seen from the end April to the end June and from mid-July to mid-October.Chris Rape
Tachinid Recording Scheme
/ref> They feed on nectar and pollen of flowers, especially of

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

(''

Cirsium arvense ''Cirsium arvense'' is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, northern Africa and widely introduced elsewhere.Joint Nature Conservation Committee''Cirsium arvense'' The standa ...

'') and

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

(''

Heracleum sphondylium ''Heracleum sphondylium'', commonly known as hogweed, common hogweed or cow parsnip, is a herbaceous perennial or biennial plant, in the umbelliferous family Apiaceae that includes fennel, cow parsley, ground elder and giant hogweed. It is nat ...

''). Females do not lay eggs, like a parasitic wasp, in the caterpillar, but on the leaves of a potential nutritive plant of the host caterpillars. When the eggs hatch the young larvae enter the body of the caterpillars (one larva per caterpillar) and eat them from the inside. In fact larvae are

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

s of the

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s and larvae of other young insects, but mainly of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s in the families

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

and

Lymantriidae The Lymantriinae (formerly called the Lymantriidae) are a subfamily of moths of the family Erebidae. The taxon was erected by George Hampson in 1893. Many of its component species are referred to as "tussock moths" of one sort or another. The cat ...

. In Britain afflicted species include the broom moth ('' Ceramica pisi''), the dun-bar (''

Cosmia trapezina The dun-bar (''Cosmia trapezina'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common Palearctic species. Distribution The species occurs throughout almost the whole of Europe. In the north, the range extends to Middle Fennoscandia, in the eas ...

''), small Quaker ('' Orthosia cruda'') and common Quaker (''

Orthosia cerasi The common Quaker (''Orthosia cerasi'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775. Some authors prefer the synonym ''Orthosia stabilis'' ( Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775). It is distributed througho ...

''). They also parasitize caterpillars of the gypsy moth (''

Lymantria dispar ''Lymantria dispar'', also known as the gypsy moth or the spongy moth, is a species of moth in the family Erebidae. ''Lymantria dispar'' is subdivided into several subspecies, with subspecies such as ''L. d. dispar'' and ''L. d. japonica'' bei ...

''), the black arches (''

Lymantria monacha The black arches or nun moth (''Lymantria monacha'')Carter, David. Butterflies and Moths, Dorling Kindersley, pg 271 is a small Palaearctic moth. It is considered a forest pest. Description The moths of ''Lymantria monacha'' have a wingspan of ...

''), and the pine beauty (''

Panolis flammea The pine beauty (''Panolis flammea'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common species of pine woods in Europe. The distribution area extends from the west of Catalonia over southern France, central Italy, central Europe to western Si ...

'').Insectoid
/ref> Pupation occurs outside the host in the soil litter. After about two weeks the adult flies will appear. This species has a potential economic importance in forest pest control.

Bibliography

*Agnieszka Draber-Mońko: State of knowledge of the tachinid fauna of Eastern Asia, with new data from North Korea. Part II. Tachininae. In: FragmentaFaunistica, 54(2), 2011, S. 157–177. *F.I. van Emden: Diptera Cyclorrhapha Calyptrata (1) Section a: Tachinidae and Calliphoridae. Handbook for the identification of British insects Vol X Part 4a. Published by the Royal Entomological Society of London, 1954 *H.P. Tschorsnig, V.A. Richter: Kap. 3.54. Family Tachinidae. In: L Papp, B Darvas (editors): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera, Vol 3: Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest 1998, S. 691–827. *John O. Stireman III, James E. O'Hara, D. Monty Wood: Tachinidae: Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology. In: Annual Revue of Entomology, 51, 2006, S. 525–555, doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.51.110104.151133 *N. Muráriková, J. Vanhara, A. Tóthová, J. Havel: Polyphasic approach applying artificial neural networks, molecular analysis and postabdomen morphology to West Palaearctic Tachina spp. (Diptera, Tachinidae). In: Bulletin of Entomological Research, 101, 2011, S. 165–175, doi:10.1017/S0007485310000295 *Sergey P.Gaponov: Evolution trends in Tachinid egg morphology. In: Arch. Universidad de Granada, 9, 1997, S. 33–54.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tachina Fera Insects described in 1761 Diptera of Europe fera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus