346 



The Two-winged Plies 



and pupating with its fatal parasites still feeding inside. But the butterfly 

 never issues: in its place buzz out several of these bristly Tachina-flies. 

 While their habits arouse our indignation at first acquaintance, and par- 

 ticularly if we have set our hearts on rearing a rare moth or butterfly, a 

 moment's reflection assures us of the immense good these flies must really 

 do. Howard tells of an instance observed by him where the buzzing of 

 the swarms of Tachina-flies, hovering over and laying their eggs on the 

 hosts of a great army of army-worms, could be heard for a long distance. 



Fig. 491. 



Fig. 492 



Fig. 4QI. — .\ Tachina-fly, Dejeania corpulcnta. (One and one-half times natural size.) 

 Fig. 492. — Tachinid parasite (at left) of the California flower-beetle, and parasitic fungus, 

 Sporolrichum sp. (at right) of same beetle. (Slightly enlarged.) 



He says that a great outbreak of army-worms in northern Alabama in 1881, 

 when all crops were threatened with total destruction, was completely frus- 

 trated by Tachina-flies. These parasites also attack locusts, leaf-eating 

 beetles, and many other injurious insects besides caterpillars, and altogether 

 do much to keep in check some of our worst insect-pests. A single species 

 of Tachina-fly (Fig. 492) is almost the only check on the destructive flower- 

 eating Diahrotica (D. soror) of California, which, if allowed to increase 

 unhindered, would soon destroy every blossom in this land of flowers. 



Resembling somewhat in appearance the Tachina-flies are the so-called 

 nimble-flies, constituting the small subfamily Dcxiina^. Most of the species 

 in this country belong to the single genus De.xia and have been little studied. 

 The larva; seem to be all parasitic, although the life-history of no species has 

 been wholly worked through yet. Beetles and snails .seem to be the favorite 

 hosts of these flies. 



In the large group of flies, some dingy and ob.scure in coloration, others 

 brightly colored and with beautifully patterned wings, but all small and 

 most unfamiliar, called the Acalyptratc Muscida? (that is, the house-fly 

 allies with .'^mall alulets), we shall not attempt to distinguish the vari- 

 ous subfamilies as we have for the Calyptrate Muscids. Dipterologists 



