6 R. W. CROSSKEY 



cotton bollworms, masquerade under different names in different zoogeographical 

 regions (just as their hosts often do) when almost certainly only a single species 

 is involved. Between Australia and New Zealand there is almost no relationship 

 at all in the tachinid fauna, that of New Zealand being a baffling and peculiar 

 fauna very different from that of the rest of the Old World; the only notable point 

 of resemblance between the Australian and New Zealand faunas is in the Phasiini, 

 where the New Zealand 'genus' Campbellia suggests derivation from the Australian 

 part of the Ahphora (Mormonomyia) complex. Little can be said about any 

 possible relationship between the Australian Tachinidae and those of South 

 America beyond commenting that there is some resemblance in fades between 

 forms in Tasmania (and nearby parts of the Australian mainland) and some forms 

 in the southern Neotropical fauna; the significance of this resemblance is not clear. 

 All the main subfamilies and tribes of Tachinidae are represented in Australia, 

 but the area is remarkable for the rich development of the Proseninae (=Dexiinae) 

 and in particular of the Rutiliini (Crosskey, 1973). The abundance of forms in this 

 tribe appears to be closely correlated with the richness in Australia of the chafer 

 fauna (Scarabaeidae : Melolonthinae), which provides the hosts for these tachinids. 



PART I— KEYS TO THE SUTRASPECIFIC TAXA OF AUSTRALIAN TACHINIDAE 



INTRODUCTION 



It is certain that the several hundred species of Tachinidae known to occur 

 in Australia represent only a small proportion of the fauna that will ultimately 

 be discovered and (presumably) named. It is therefore premature, in a sense, 

 to attempt to provide keys to the supraspecific taxa, especially when experience 

 shows that even with a well-known fauna like the Tachinidae of Britain it is 

 difficult to construct really satisfactory keys that anyone but a specialist can use 

 reliably. Yet in attempting to acquire a knowledge of a large and complex insect 

 fauna like the Tachinidae of Australia the potential student is in need of some 

 keys that at least begin to organize the mass of data available and to show how the 

 many described genera can be differentiated, and how the higher taxa to which 

 they belong can best be recognized. 



Scarcely any keys to the Australian fauna have up to now been available. 

 Malloch (various papers) published small piecemeal keys to place some of his 

 newly described taxa among their relatives, and one or two longer keys for the 

 recognition of artificial groups of genera, but these have been of very limited use 

 and are now outmoded by changes in generic concepts that have taken place 

 during the past thirty years or so. Apart from these, the only keys published 

 to any Australian supraspecific taxa have been restricted to the Rutiliini 

 (Paramonov, 1968; Crosskey, 1973). 



None of these pre-existing keys is of any use in providing the would-be student 

 of the Australian fauna with an over-all system of keys that will provide a means 

 of identifying the many tribes and genera to be found on the Australian continent. 

 The object of these keys here presented is to provide just such a system, so that 





