346 



Tachinidae. 



Fig. 83. Head of P. selecta ^ 



four black stripes, the median abbreviated behind, the lateral some- 

 what broad; scutellum dark (sometimes brown). Thorax with short 



black hairs; the lateral scutellar bristle 

 small. Abdomen black, somewhat shin- 

 ing, the three last segments with a 

 narrow or somewhat broader, greyish 

 white or greyish yellow pruinose front 

 band, somewhat shifting according to 

 view; the bands interrupted in the 

 middle, so that a black middle stripe 

 occurs. Abdomen black-haired, either 

 with discai and marginal bristles and 

 then second segment with a pair of 

 marginal, third with a pair of discai and 

 marginal and fourth with a pair of discai 

 and a row of marginal bristles, but most 

 often with only the marginal bristles. 

 Legs black. Wings slightly tinged; veins 

 blackish. Squamulæ yellow or yellowish. H alteres blackish brown. 

 Female. Similar ; f rons of about the same breadth or a Uttle broader. 

 Length 4,5 — 6,5 mm. 



P. selecta is not rare in Denmark ; at Copenhagen, Søndermarken, 

 Ordrup, Charlottenlund, Lyngby Mose, Hareskov, Hillerød, Tis- 

 vilde; on Lolland at Dødemose near Nysted, on Funen at Faaborg, 

 in Jutland at Laven, and on Bornholm; the dates are ^/g — Ve- I* is 

 known as parasite on Acalla cristana, Hyponomeuta cognatella and 

 malinella, and also on Bupalus piniarius, but this is doubtful, and on 

 the non Danish Ocneria detrita ; further on a number of Tenthredinids 

 of the genera Monardis, Platycampus, Monophadnus, Trichiocampus, 

 Priophorus, Pteronidea, Pristiophorus and Lophyrus. With us it has 

 been bred from Hyponomeuta cognatella and malinella and from 

 Psecadia decemguttella (C. S. Larsen), the latter not earlier known 

 as host for it, the fly emerged on ^^/g. Nielsen has (Entom. Medd. 2, 

 IV, 1909, 29) treated its biology; the author bred it from H. euony- 

 mella\ the host makes its cocoon before it dies, but does not reach 

 to pupate; in each host only one parasite develops; it bores out of 

 the empty skin of the host larva and pupates in the cocoon; it has 

 more than one yearly generation. 



Geographical distribution: — Most Europe; towards the north 

 to southern Scandinavia. 



