TACHINIDAE OF ORIENTAL REGION 5 



present disorganized and crudely alphataxonomic state to something better - to 

 a fuller, more organized and advanced, state of taxonomic knowledge that more 

 appropriately reflects the significant role of Tachinidae in the economy of nature 

 and as man's actual or potential allies in the control of economic pests. Meta- 

 phorically speaking, its aim has been to try and convert taxonomic quicksand 

 into taxonomic bedrock so that, hopefully, other workers will find a surer foundation 

 for studies on Oriental Tachinidae than was available in the past. 



The style and scope of the work are exactly comparable to my earlier conspectus 

 of Australian Tachinidae (Crosskey, 19736), and is similarly divided into three 

 parts. Part I deals with classification and identification, and provides: (a) a 

 classificatory system for the described forms and into which, no doubt with 

 modifications as necessary, new forms can be fitted; (b) keys for recognition of 

 subfamilies and tribes, with preliminary diagnoses of these insofar as they appertain 

 to the Oriental fauna; (c) keys to all genera and subgenera considered valid; and 

 (d) some identification keys to species. Part II provides a systematic catalogue 

 of the fauna arranged according to the classification adopted in Part I, the catalogue 

 being based upon a study of nearly all existing types and including summaries of 

 the geographical distribution of species accepted as valid. Part III provides an 

 account of the host-relations so far as these are known for Oriental forms, and a 

 preliminary host catalogue. Many of the genera, especially the larger ones, remain 

 in need of detailed revision with thorough study of male genitalia, female terminalia, 

 and other critical features, and it has not been practicable at this stage to attempt 

 to give keys to all species (and some specific names accepted as valid could therefore 

 prove to be synonyms); but now that a generic framework has been provided, 

 and the described species arranged in accordance with it, it should prove a straight- 

 forward matter to revise individual genera. 



Taken together the present Oriental conspectus and the previously published 

 Australian conspectus embrace the major part of the entire Oriento-Australasian 

 fauna, only the Tachinidae of the New Guinea area, the Pacific islands and New 

 Zealand remaining untreated. It is hoped at a later date to provide a third work 

 dealing with the fauna of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and the trio will 

 then complete the coverage for the true Oriento-Australasian fauna as a whole: 

 the tachinids of New Zealand will not be dealt with as the small, peculiar, fauna 

 is very disjunct from other parts of Australasia and has been excellently reviewed 

 by Dugdale (1969). 



Geographical coverage. The geographical scope of this paper includes the 

 Oriental Region more or less in the conventionally accepted zoogeographical sense 

 of Wallace. It will be pertinent, however, to note some details of coverage at the 

 periphery of the region to make the scope fully clear. In the west the whole of 

 Pakistan and Kashmir are included, albeit that the fauna is essentially Palaearctic 

 in character; in the mid-north the boundary with the Palaearctic Region is formed 

 by the political boundaries between Nepal-India and Tibetan China; in the east 

 Formosa (Taiwan) is included; and in the south-east Weber's Line is taken as 

 forming the boundary with the Australasian Region instead of Wallace's Line 



