There are well over 100 families in the order Diptera, or true flies, and most of them are comprised entirely of species with free-living larvae. There are, however, about 20 families with at least some species classed as parasitoids, species that live within other animals as larvae and kill their hosts before progressing on to the adult stage. It is estimated that this type of parasitic life style evolved over 100 times in the Diptera and multiple times within certain families. About 16,000 of the approximately 120,000 described species of Diptera are parasitoids, and about 10,000 of them belong to a single family, the Tachinidae. All tachinid flies are parasitoids in their larval stage and their hosts all belong to the Arthropoda, almost exclusively the Insecta. The true diversity of the Tachinidae is likely many thousands of species higher than the 10,000 currently described, making this family a good candidate for the most speciose family of Diptera and without question the most...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Belshaw R (1994) Life history characteristics of Tachinidae (Diptera) and their effect on polyphagy. In: Hawkins BA, Sheehan W (eds) Parasitoid community ecology. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp 145–162
Grenier S (1988) Applied biological control with tachinid flies (Diptera, Tachinidae): a review. Anz Schadlingskd Pfl 61:49–56
O’Hara JE (2007) World genera of the Tachinidae (Diptera) and their regional occurrence. Version 3. 71 pp. http://www.nadsdiptera.org/Tach/Genera/Gentachver3.pdf
Stireman JO, O’Hara JE, Wood DM (2006) Tachinidae: evolution, behavior, and ecology. Annu Rev Entomol 51:525–555
Tschorsnig H-P, Richter VA (1998). Family Tachinidae. In: Papp L, Darvas B (eds) Contributions to a manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Higher Brachycera, vol. 3. Science Herald, Budapest, Hungary, pp 691–827
Wood DM (1987) Tachinidae. In: McAlpine JF, Peterson BV, Shewell GE, Teskey HJ, Vockeroth JR, Wood DM (eds) Manual of Nearctic Diptera, vol. 2. Agriculture Canada Monograph 28: i–vi, 675–1332, pp 1193–1269
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
O’Hara, J.E. (2008). Tachinid Flies (Diptera: Tachinidae). In: Capinera, J.L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_2344
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_2344
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6242-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6359-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences