
TACHINIDAE OF AUSTRALIA 75 
appears clearly to be a derived (apomorphic) one, and is not found to the same 
degree elsewhere in the Tachinidae. Some authors have in the past recognized 
two subfamilies within the group, the Exoristinae (= Tachininae sensu van Emden) 
with a small pre-alar seta, and the Goniinae with a large pre-alar seta, but specialists 
now seem agreed that it is only justified to recognize all as a single subfamily 
(Goniinae); the group as a whole is rather uniform in the genital structure of the 
males and intermediate forms exist between the more typical elements of the 
exoristines and the goniines on external characters. The external facies within the 
Goniinae is extremely diverse, though not to the extent shown by the Tachininae, 
and it is not easy to define the subfamily (especially as it is not unified by parasitizing 
only one order of insects, the hosts including forms as diverse as adult beetles, 
larval Lepidoptera and grubs of paper-making wasps). Nevertheless the following 
characteristics of the external adult morphology are typical of the subfamily and 
help towards defining it. 
Head without a facial carina; head of g never holoptic and uppermost eye facets not 
enlarged; rows of frontal setae descending usually to about on a level with the middle of 
the second antennal segment; reclinate orbital setae nearly always present, 2 rarely with 
outwardly directed prevertical setae; inner vertical setae normally subparallel (very rarely 
crossing); vibrissae well developed; arista normally micropubescent, rarely plumose; palpi 
almost always fully developed (papilliform in some species of Stomatomyia, Spoggosia, etc.) ; 
thoracic and abdominal chaetotaxy usually strongly developed; prosternum haired or setulose 
(bare in a few forms, especially in Blondeliini); prosternal membrane bare; humeral callus 
with two or more setae; at least 2 + 2 dc setae, usually more; normally three post ia setae 
(two only in a few forms or aberrant specimens); pre-alar seta present, small or large; two or 
more sa setae, though hind one sometimes weak; postalar callus with two setae; scutellum 
with at least two pairs of marginal setae; 2—4 (5) stpl setae; infrasquamal hairs almost always 
absent (present at least in a few Blondeliini); fore coxa bare on much of its inner anterior 
surface; mid tibia with or without a submedian v seta; hind coxa almost always all bare 
posterodorsally, but a few forms (such as many Carcelia spp.) with one or two fine setulae; 
hind tibia almost always without pu apical seta, usually with two dorsal preapical setae but 
sometimes with a pd preapical seta in addition; abdomen with Tr + 2 excavate to its hind 
margin (a few exceptions including all Siphonini) ; sternites of the abdomen normally concealed 
or mainly so; hair of lower half of the occiput and the postbuccae always pale. 
Some of the tribes here accepted are very weakly defined and probably ought 
not to be recognized as valid, but it is best to treat them as valid until a better 
classification can emerge from a large-scale study on a world basis using new or 
improved criteria. This comment applies particularly to the Carceliini, Sturmiini, 
Winthemiini and Eryciini, which merge rather imperceptibly into one another 
and are only separable on rather unconvincing grounds. 
Herting (personal communication) considers that the multifarious genera of the 
Goniini-Carceliini-Sturmiini-Eryciini complex should be aggregated into two tribes 
(for which the names Eryciini and Goniini would be nomenclaturally correct) 
according to whether they have an ovolarviparous or a microoviparous reproductive 
habit. Such a course has much to commend it insofar as it would probably 
reflect the real phylogeny more accurately than the present tribal system. But 
it is impossible to adopt such a system as yet for the Australian fauna, in which 
the reproductive habit of most of the genera remains unstudied. Furthermore, 
