TACHINIDAE OF ORIENTAL REGION 283 



Efforts are currently being made to introduce tachinid parasites of Lymantria 

 obfuscata Walker from India into North America for the control of the gypsy moth 

 Lymantria dispar Linnaeus. This moth, originally a native of Europe, is a serious 

 forest defoliator in parts of the United States, and the successful establishment 

 of Oriental tachinid parasites of L. obfuscata in the U.S.A. might materially assist 

 in its control. The biological control work involved is resulting in the appearance 

 of reared tachinid specimens in museum collections, some of which (though emanat- 

 ing from India) are purportedly parasites of L. dispar whereas they were actually 

 reared from L. obfuscata (the discrepancy arises because Oriental Lymantria obfuscata 

 were originally considered to be the same species as L. dispar: see Rao, 1966 : 1). 

 There is, apparently, still some doubt as to the specific distinctness of obfuscata 

 and dispar, but according to material in the BMNH collection both entities are 

 found in India (dispar occurring in Punjab, but obfuscata being the usual species). 

 Two new species of the tachinid genus Palexorista Townsend have been found to 

 parasitize L. obfuscata and are in culture in the United States for release against 

 L. dispar there. A survey of the natural enemies of gypsy moth has been given 

 by Rao (1966); this work contains a considerable amount of information on 

 Tachinidae, but changes in nomenclature have occurred since it was prepared (these 

 will be evident from the parasite-host and host-parasite lists later in this Section). 



The whole field of biological control of insects in the Oriental Region, containing 

 several references to Tachinidae, has recently been reviewed by Rao et al. (1971). 



A SYNOPSIS OF THE HOST-RELATIONS OF ORIENTAL TACHINIDAE 



The following comments summarize the host-relations for the different host 

 orders and parasite groups occurring in the Oriental Region, so far as they can 

 be generalized from what is known both within and without the region. Hosts 

 are not yet known for the two small endemic tribes Germariochaetini and Oxyphyl- 

 lomyiini, and there are no host records yet available for any Oriental member of 

 the Eloceriini, Ernestiini, Imitomyiini, Leucostomatini, Macquartiini, Micro- 

 phthalmini, Minthoini, Ormiini, Parerigonini, Phyllomyini, Rutiliini and Wagneriini. 

 Even amongst many of the remaining tribes records are few and often only avail- 

 able for one or two species. 



Lepidoptera. Thirty families of Lepidoptera are so far recorded as providing 

 hosts in the Oriental Region, and the order is of much greater significance than any 

 other in tachinid biology. The order provides hosts for most members of the Tachi- 

 ninae and Goniinae (subfamilies which jointly compose nearly three-quarters of 

 the Oriental tachinid fauna), but is not attacked by Phasiinae and usually not 

 by the Proseninae (Dexiinae) . Both caterpillar and chrysalis stages may be attacked, 

 and tachinids will parasitize immature Lepidoptera in a great variety of ecological 

 niches; hence the range of hosts includes stem-borers, wood-borers, defoliators and 

 boll-feeders. Some species attract the attentions of several different species of 

 tachinid that are not always closely related: Heliothis armigera, for instance, is 

 known to have at least eight species of tachinid parasite in the Oriental Region 



