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Deopalpus sp.
Tachinid flies are parasitoids and play an important role in controlling other insect populations and an indirect reduction in feeding damage to plants used by hosts. Hosts of tachinid flies are all arthropods, almost exclusively insects. Tachinid species can be broadly divided into two types, specialists and generalists. As the names imply, specialists attack one or a few host species and generalists attack multiple hosts. On the whole, tachinids tend to be less host specific than wasp parasitoids. For many tachinid species the hosts are unknown, but the majority of hosts are Lepidoptera, mostly caterpillars that feed on foliage in exposed situations but also others that are concealed, such as leafrollers and stem borers. Lepidoptera represent the main hosts of the two largest tachinid subfamilies, Exoristinae and Tachininae. Some tachinids are solitary endoparasitoids and will fight one another within a host until a single larva remains alive. Other species, especially those that parasitize larger hosts, are not aggressive towards one another and numerous individuals can successfully develop into adults. If conditions are crowded, then some maggots may die and the rest may produce stunted adults.
Widely dispersed throughout North America. Areas of the host's habitat & host plants.
Spotted on Jul 2, 2012
Submitted on Jul 4, 2012
2 Comments
Thank you ceherzog :)
wonderful!