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How to Manage Pests
Identification: Natural Enemies Gallery
Tachinid flies
Parasitic
flies in the family Tachinidae, over 1,500 known species
Click on image to enlarge
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Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Tachinidae
Common Hosts: There are many species of tachinids. Some
are host specific and others have various host insects. Voria
ruralis attacks various species of moths in the families
Noctuidae and Pyralidae including the cabbage
looper, alfalfa looper, fall armyworm, and variegated cutworm. Erynnia
tortricis attacks various species of lepidoptera in the Tortricidae
family including amorbia, codling
moth, obliquebanded leafroller, omnivorous
leafroller, oriental fruit moth, peach twig borer, pink bollworm,
and sunflower moth. Erynniopsis antennata is a parasite
of the elm leaf beetle.
Commercially available: No
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The family Tachinidae is the most important family
of parasitic flies providing biological control. Tachinid larvae
are internal parasites
of immature beetles, butterflies, moths, sawflies, earwigs, grasshoppers,
or true bugs. Adults measure between 3 and 14 mm (<1/2 inch),
are often dark, robust, hairy and resemble houseflies, but with very
stout bristles at the tips of their abdomens. Egg laying varies considerably.
In some species, eggs are deposited on foliage near the host insect,
and the maggots are ingested during feeding by the host after they
hatch. In other species, the adult fly glues eggs to the body of
the host, and the maggots penetrate into the host's body after the
eggs hatch. Some female tachinids possess a piercing ovipositor and
insert their eggs into the host body. In all cases, tachinid maggots
feed internally in their hosts and exit the host body to pupate.
Pupae are commonly oblong and dark reddish. Tachinid flies complete
one to several generations per year.
Colorful Trichopoda
pennipes, a parasite of squash bugs, lays its
oval pale eggs singly or in groups on the sides of large nymphs
or adults of several species of true bugs including the southern
green stinkbug and the squash bug. The larvae burrow into the
bug's body where one larva will survive. When ready, the large
maggot will exit the host's body and drop to the ground to
pupate. The host dies soon after the maggot leaves the body.
Voria ruralis attacks various species of moths in the
families Noctuidae and Pyralidae. Adult females lay one or several
eggs into the host which quickly hatch and the maggot consumes
the host internally. After killing its host, the larvae emerge,
drop to the ground, and form oblong pupae, which are dark red and
8 mm (1/3 inch) long.
Erynnia tortricis parasitizes larvae and pupae in various
lepidopterous families including amorbia, codling moth, obliquebanded
leafroller, omnivorous leafroller, oriental fruit moth, peach twig
borer, pink bollworm, and sunflower moth. This endoparasite lays
one to several eggs on the head or thorax of host larvae. The parasitic
larvae do not kill the host until after the host pupates. Parasitized
moth pupae may then be recognized by the prominent Y-shaped parasite
spiracles that protrude beneath the tips of the wingpads of the
host pupa.
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