i>^vti.] 85 



ANNOTATED LIST OF BRITISH TACHINIID^. 

 15Y R. U. MEADE. 



The British Tnchiniidcn are very little known, comparatively few 

 species having been properly identified, or described, in any English 

 work ; and the Family has excited little interest among British 

 Dipterists. For the purpose of drawing attention ' to them, and to 

 facilitate their study, I shall endeavour to arrange them into genera, 

 and to name and briefly define as many species as I have been able to 

 find or identify. The list, I fear, will be very imperfect, but it can be 

 filled up by others. I shall only include those species which may be 

 vailed true Tachinids, and are comprised in the sub-family of TacTiinince 

 <if Mr. Verrall's list. 



These flies, which are parasitical upon other insects, especially 

 upon Lepidoptera, belong to the most highly developed group of the 

 Miiscidce, having strong wings, large scales (aJuIefs), and often wide 

 oval bodies. 



The general characters of the family are the following : — The 

 species are mostly armed with numerous strong spines and bristles. 

 The eyes are more or less widely separated in both sexes, those of the 

 male, however, being usually nearer together than those of the female. 

 The frontal space {frontalia) is bordered with strong bristles {fronfo- 

 orbitaJ), which are generally arranged in a single row on each side in 

 the males, and in a double row in the females. The arista is mostly 

 bare, with the basal half more or less thickened ; it is composed of 

 three joints, of which the first two are generally very short, and the 

 third very long ; but sometimes the second is more or less elongated, 

 and becomes in some instances nearly or quite as long as the third. 

 The antennae vary much in length ; the first joint is usually very short, 

 the second is sometimes (in one genus onlj^) loiiger than the third, 

 occasionally of equal length with it, but generally much shorter. The 

 sides of the epistome are usually furnished with long and strong 

 vibrissa?, and the Jacialia (edges of the facial space containing the 

 antenna;) are often ciliated for a longer or shorter part of their length. 

 The cheeks {wangen, Sch., mediana, Dsv., the spaces between the 

 facialia and the eyes) are sometimes clothed with soft hairs or bristles, 

 and the chin (backen, Sch., lateralia, Dsv., the bottom of the face 

 below the cheek and eyes) is also often ciliated. The back and sides 

 of the thorax are furnished with rows of numerous spines, and the 

 abdominal segments are also usually armed with strong setae on their 

 posterior edges, as well as in some species in the middle or disc. The 



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