TACHINIDAE OF AUSTRALIA 37 



Head dichoptic, eyes widely separated in both sexes, eye facets not enlarged; °- with two 

 pairs of strong proclinate orbital setae; face without a median keel or very weakly raised 

 medially [a definite sharp keel occurs in the Neotropical genus Polistiopsis Townsend] ; ocellar 

 setae proclinate; antennae of varied length (much shorter than face in Australian forms, very 

 long and reaching epistome in some forms from elsewhere); palpi absent; humeral callus 

 with 2-4 setae; acr setae variable number, likewise dc setae; two sa setae; two widely separated 

 post ia setae (of which the anterior one is enormously strong and stands immediately behind the 

 presntural seta just mesad of the pre-alar seta [a very unusual chaetotactic feature in Tachinidae]) 

 (Text-fig. 58); pra seta weak or moderately strong; one, two or three stpl setae; infrasquamal 

 hairs absent; scutellum with one, two or three (most often three) pairs of strong marginal 

 setae; wings elongate, often partially or wholly coloured; second costal sector haired ventrally; 

 basal node of i? 4+ 5 with some minute hairs; bend of M forming an abrupt angle, often with 

 M 2 appendix; cell R 5 usually closed and petiolate (Text-fig. 76) [so in all Australian forms], 

 sometimes open to wing margin; last section of Cu x usually at least half as long as, sometimes 

 subequal to, m—cu; lower calypter evenly rounded on its hind margin; legs moderately strongly 

 bristled, without any scale fringes; hind tibia without pd preapical seta (only with ad and d 

 preapicals) and with a pv apical seta; hind coxae widely separated from abdominal base, 

 the posteroventral declivity of the thorax forming a deep completely sclerotized bridge; 

 abdomen very elongate, subcylindrical (Text-fig. 92) or subclavate (in some forms appearing 

 'waisted' in the manner of Vespoidea), with the postabdomen recurved; Ti + 2 slightly 

 excavate only at extreme base; abdomen with some strong setae; sternites concealed (except 

 for most of St5). 



All but one species of Australian Cylindromyiini belong to the genus Cylindromyia, 

 and the majority exactly resemble some of the common species of Cylindromyia 

 found in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere (in fact so close is the 

 resemblance that if the Australian provenance were unknown it would be assumed 

 that specimens were either European or North American) ; these species have the 

 basal abdominal segments tawny orange or light red (usually with a dark mid line) 

 and the apical segments black. The single Australian cylindromyiine species that 

 is not a Cylindromyia was described by Bigot under the name Ocyptera tristis and 

 is still known only from the holotype ; it is undoubtedly congeneric with Gerocyptera 

 marginalis (Walker) from Amboina (= Ambon), type-species of Gerocyptera, and 

 is therefore here assigned to the genus Gerocyptera. (It is worth noting that the 

 type-locality of tristis is known only as 'Australia', but as Bigot was sometimes at 

 fault in his recorded provenances there is an element of doubt whether tristis is 

 truly Australian, which will only be resolved by future collecting: the genus 

 Gerocyptera occurs from the Moluccas to New Hebrides through New Guinea, and 

 if tristis is indeed Australian then it probably occurs only in north Queensland.) 

 The head profile of G. tristis is shown in Text-fig. 25. 



Some species of Gerocyptera resemble wasps of the superfamily Vespoidea and 

 the genus is extremely closely allied to the Neotropical genera Clinogaster Wulp 

 and Polistiopsis Townsend in which the resemblance to vespoid wasps is even 

 more perfect. (All this complex is very rare in collections and nothing is known of 

 the host relations.) 



Key to Australian Genera of CYLINDROMYIINI 



1 Lower calypter with very fine long marginal hairs in addition to the normal very 

 short fringe. Basal node of vein -R44. 5 on the ventral surface of the wing with a 



