Homepage for Tachinidae Resources

by James E. O'Hara
Invertebrate Biodiversity
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
960 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0C6

The Tachinidae are a huge cosmopolitan family of flies (Insecta: Diptera) with almost 10,000 known species and many more yet to be discovered. They are all parasitoids of other arthropods (mostly insects) during in their larval stage and are free-living as adults. They play an important role in the population dynamics of their hosts and are sometimes used in biological control programs against pestiferous insects.

This site contains hundreds of web pages organized into the following subject areas. The first link gives a general overview of the Tachinidae and is followed by links to web pages of a more specific nature. Some of the web pages are based on published works (as indicated), whereas others are only found on this website. Similarly, some of the pages are 'static' and not likely to change, whereas others are 'dynamic' and are updated periodically. At the bottom of each web page is given the date the page was first uploaded to the Internet and, where appropriate, the date when it was last revised.

General Information about Tachinid Flies

An illustrated overview of the Tachinidae is given, including sections on classification, life stages (adult, egg, larval instars, puparium), distribution and evolution, hosts, host location, mate finding, ecology, and biological control. The information is taken from a chapter written on the Tachinidae for the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Entomology (2008). A PDF of this chapter is available upon request.

TachImage Gallery

View zoomable, authoritatively identified, images of tachinid species. Chose from a list of species taxonomically arranged by subfamily, tribe and genus. Each species has its own web page and includes known distribution of the species, links, and data associated with the imaged specimen(s). The species are primarily from America north of Mexico and almost all specimens are housed in the Diptera Unit of the Canadian National Collection of Insects (CNC) in Ottawa, Canada.

Tachinid Morphology

The main external features of a tachinid fly are shown and labeled. The illustrations are reproduced from the "Morphology and Terminology—Adults" chapter in Manual of Nearctic Diptera, Volume 1 (McAlpine, 1981).

The Tachinid Times Newsletter

This newsletter has been published annually since 1988. It was originally distributed in hardcopy but is now almost exclusively an Internet publication. It is a forum for informal communication about current projects, recent research findings, field trips, and similar types of information relating to the Tachinidae. All issues are available as PDFs. A new issue is published each February.

Taxonomic and Host Catalogue of the Tachinidae of America
North of Mexico

This series of web pages provide taxonomic and host information on the species of Tachinidae of America north of Mexico. The taxonomic information is based primarily on the Catalogue of the Tachinidae (Diptera) of America North of Mexico by O'Hara and Wood (2004). The host information is from A Host-Parasite Catalog of North American Tachinidae (Diptera) by Arnaud (1978).

World Genera of the Tachinidae

There are almost 10,000 described species of Tachinidae distributed among the six biogeographic regions of the world. There is a Diptera catalogue for each region that lists the species and genera of Tachinidae, but some of these catalogues are outdated and they all have somewhat (or radically) different classifications. The World Genera of the Tachinidae (Diptera) and their Regional Occurrence provides a listing of all the currently valid tachinid genera and their distributions, and is updated about once a year.

Tachinid Bibliography 1980 - Present

References pertaining to the Tachinidae and published after 1979 are listed in this tachinid bibliography. The bibliography currently includes over 3500 references and is updated annually each February. It has been compiled over the years from various sources including the Zoological Record, online abstracting services, journals, and reprints or citations received from authors and colleagues. The bibliography is maintained in an offline EndNote® X2 database.

Update of Tachinid Names in Arnaud (1978)

Arnaud's (1978) publication, A Host-Parasite Catalog of North American Tachinidae (Diptera), covers all of the literature pertaining to tachinid hosts published between 1841 and 1969. A number of the tachinid names in that work are now outdated, and users often have a difficult time determining the currently accepted name of a tachinid name listed therein. This resource provides a table showing, side-by-side, the names used by Arnaud (1978) and their modern equivalents.

Primary Types of Tachinidae in the CNC

Primary, or name-bearing, types (syntypes, holotypes, lectotypes and neotypes) are the foundation of taxonomy. They are the specimens upon which the names of organisms are based, and as such they are the most scientifically significant holdings in museum collections. The Canadian National Collection of Insects is home to one of the finest Tachinidae collections in the world and includes the primary types of nearly 1100 nominal species. Details are given in Diptera Types in the Canadian National Collection of Insects (Part 4 and Supplement).

Tachinidae chapter, Manual of Nearctic Diptera

The Manual of Nearctic Diptera (Vol. 1, 1981; Vol. 2, 1987) was the result of the largest collaborative effort in the history of Nearctic dipterology. For each family of Diptera the morphology, biology, and classification is reviewed and a key to the genera is given. The chapter on the Tachinidae, the family with far more genera in the Nearctic Region than any other, was authored by D.M. Wood. Both volumes of the Manual are now out of print. A PDF of the Tachinidae chapter is available here.

Tachinids of Bertha Armyworm

The bertha armyworm, Mamestra configurata Walker, is a lepidopteran in the family Noctuidae that causes periodic but severe damage to canola crops in North America, particularly in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Among the parasitoids that normally help to keep this pest in check are a few species of tachinid flies. The biology of these tachinid parasitoids is reviewed and a key to the genera is given.

First published on the NADS site on 20 June 2003
Last update: 20 December 2012
J.E. O'Hara