54 Tachinidae. 



The number of known European Tachinidae cannot at present 

 be given with any certainty. In the catalogue about 1400 palaearctic 

 species are eniimerated, besides a number of doubtful; only relatively 

 few of tliem are not European. The number is probably too large 

 but, on the other hånd, a number has been pubhshed since. Stein in 

 his last work : Die verbreitesten Tachiniden Mitteleuropas, has about 

 700. The total number of European species may perhaps be in the 

 neighbourhood of 1000 or more. 



It might be thought that the Tachinids, parasites themselves, 

 were free from parasitic Hymenoptera, but this is not so. A number 

 is known of Ichneumonids, but especially Chalcidids. Tliese parasites 

 are, however, not so many that they are of any econominal importance. 

 But the Tachinids have other, rather peculiar parasites, viz species 

 of Anthrax and Hemipenthes. These flies are parasitic on Lepidopte- 

 rous larvæ, but attack also the parasites of these larvæ, both Ichneu- 

 monids and Tachinids; thus A. velutinus and H. morio have been 

 bred from Masicera silvatica in Dendrolimus pini, and after Baer 

 H. morio has also been bred from Parasetigena in Lymantria monacha 

 and Ernestia rudis in Panolis griseovariegata. The way in which the 

 parasite gets into the host is not kno\vn. 



With regard to Tachinids earlier mentioned from Denmark 

 Kramer in 1760 (Spec. Insectol. Dan.) has five, and Briinniche in 

 1761 (Prodr. Insectol. Siælland.) ca. seven and in Pontoppidan, 

 Danske Atl. in 1763 ca. nine as far as can be judged; they are all 

 under Oestrus and Musca, but as regards the identity of the species 

 nothing sure can be said. O. F. Muller 1764 (Faun. Fridrichsd.) 

 enumerates ten species, likewise as Musca and Oestrus. Fabricius in 

 Syst. Entom. 1775 has two species: Musca rustica and Stomoxys 

 siberita, both new. In Spec. Insect. 1781 lie has the same two. In 

 1787 in Mantis. Ins. he further describes Musca labiata = Metopia 

 leucocephala Rossi. In 1794 in Ent. Syst. IV he describes Musca 

 striata = Sarcophaga haematodes Meig. and M. erinaceus and enume- 

 rates rustica^ labiata and Stomoxys siberita, and fmally in Syst. Antl. 

 1805 he enumerates the named species, erinaceus now under Tachina, 

 and he describes Stomoxys cristata and minuta, the latter = Bucentes 

 geniculata De G. Fabricius has thus in all seven species from Den- 

 mark, all new, now known as Dexia rustica F., Prosena sybarita F., 

 Metopia leucocephala Rossi, Sarcophaga striata F. (see under this 

 species), Petina erinaceus F., Bucentes cristata F. and B. geniculata De G. 

 Of these Metopia leucocephala should, I think, correctly keep the 



