The Tachiniscinae are a subfamily of the fruit fly family

Tephritidae The Tephritidae are one of two fly families referred to as fruit flies, the other family being the Drosophilidae. The family Tephritidae does not include the biological model organisms of the genus ''Drosophila'' (in the family Drosophilidae), ...

. They are treated by some authorities as a separate family, Tachiniscidae. An undetermined species of the genus ''Tachiniscidia'' has been reared from

Saturniidae Saturniidae, commonly known as saturniids, is a family of Lepidoptera with an estimated 2,300 described species. The family contains some of the largest species of moths in the world. Notable members include the emperor moths, royal moths, and gi ...

caterpillars in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. The family Tachiniscidae was established by Kertész for a single species, ''Tachinisca cyaneiventris'' Kertész, 1903 from Peru and Bolivia. Kertész correctly placed that family in the “Muscidae acalyptratae”, in spite of its tachinid-like appearance. In the same year, Bischof described another genus, ''Bibundia'', with a single species, ''B. hermanni'' Bischof (from Central Africa), which he assigned to “Ortalidae”. Malloch described one more monotypic tachiniscid genus, ''Tachiniscidia'', with the type species ''T. africana'' Malloch from “Chirinda Forest, S. Rhodesia” (Zimbabwe). The only host data recorded for these three genera, or any other Tachiniscinae, is the mention of “''Anthophasia robertsi'' Cogan” (nomen nudum; listed by Cogan as an undescribed species of ''Bibundia'') reared from pupae of ''Bunaea alcinoe'' Stoll and ''Imbrasia obscura'' Butler ( Lepidoptera:

) by Roberts (1969). The exact identity of the host species needs further investigation, as Cogan (1980: 555) stated that “A single specimen of a Bibundia species has been reared by Roberts (1969) from a caterpillar of a saturniid moth, ''Imbrasia nictitans'' Fabricius” (=''Imbrasia epimethea'' Drury). The genera and species currently placed in the tribe Ortalotrypetini were originally assigned to the family Tephritidae, and generally fit its diagnosis well. Hendel (1927) established the genus ''Ortalotrypeta'' with two species from China (Sichuan), ''O. gigas'' Hendel and ''O. idana'' Hendel, which he considered related to ''Acanthonevra'' Macquart and allied genera of fruit flies. Later, eight additional species from southeastern China and northern Vietnam. The genus ''Cyaphorma'' Wang 1989, very close to ''Ortalotrypeta'', was described from China (Wang, 1989). Ito (1983) established the tribe Ortalotrypetini in his key to genera of Japanese Tephritidae. He included the single genus ''Ortalotrypeta'' to separate it from genera of the tribe Acanthonevrini. The tribe was preliminarily revised by Norrbom. McAlpine (1989) presumed that the Tachiniscidae could be a sister-group of

Pyrgotidae The Pyrgotidae are an unusual family of flies (Diptera), one of only two families of Cyclorrhapha that lack ocelli. Most species are "picture-winged" (i.e., have patterns of bands or spots on the wings), as is typical among the Tephritoidea, but ...

based only on their parasitic larval habits. Korneyev hypothesized that the highly specialized structure of female ovipositor as a

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to hav ...

of Ortalotrypetini and Tachiniscidae and joined them as a subfamily Tachiniscinae in the family

, as the sister group to other tephritid taxa. Korneyev & Norrbom summarized all the taxonomy data on the genera of the tribe. And later, Han & Ro provided the results of phylogeny reconstruction of the family Tephritidae (Diptera) from 12S, 16S, and COII mitochondrial gene fragments, which strongly supported the hypothesis of Tachiniscinae

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

and sister-group relationships to the remaining group of

than to

Classification

Tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Ortalotrypetini: :* '' Cyaforma'' :* '' Ischyropteron'' :* '' Neortalotrypeta'' :* '' Ortalotrypeta'' :* '' Protortalotrypeta'' * Tribe Tachiniscini: :* '' Bibundia'' :* '' Tachinisca'' :* '' Tachiniscidia''

References

External links

Tephritidae Information from the Diptera Site
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15634804 Brachycera subfamilies