t 
TACHINIDAE OF AUSTRALIA 37 
Head dichoptic, eyes widely separated in both sexes, eye facets not enlarged; 9 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; acy 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 
presutural 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 stp/ 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 R,, ; with some minute hairs; bend of M forming an abrupt angle, often with 
M, appendix; cell R; usually closed and petiolate (Text-fig. 76) [so in all Australian forms], 
sometimes open to wing margin; last section of Cu, 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 fd preapical seta (only with ad and d 
preapicals) and with a pu 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; Tr + 2 slightly 
excavate only at extreme base; abdomen with some strong setae; sternites concealed (except 
for most of Sts). 
All but one species of Australian Cylindromyiini belong to the genus Cylindromyna, 
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 Ocypftera 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 trvistis is known only as ‘Australia’, but as Bigot was sometimes at 
fault in his recorded provenances there is an element of doubt whether ¢vistis 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 tvistis 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.) 
Kry to AUSTRALIAN GENERA OF CYLINDROMYIINI 
I Lower calypter with very fine long marginal hairs in addition to the normal very 
short fringe. Basal node of vein R,, ; on the ventral surface of the wing with a 
