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Index of Bugs
Tachinid flies belong to a large family of parasitoid flies in the insect order Diptera. Tachinid flies look like houseflies. They can be gray, black, or striped. They often have bristles on their abdomens. Some species are brilliantly colored. Most tachinid flies have a soft body. This fly is about 6 mm long.
The adult fly has a single pair of wings. The second pair of wings is modified into club-shaped halteres, which is thought to play an important role as balancing organs.
Tachinids have complete metamorphosis, going from egg to larva to pupa to adult. The tachinid fly larvae live for 1-2 weeks and are pupae for 4-14 days.
Tachinid flies are parasitoids when they are larvae. This means that they live in the body of a host when they are developing. A parasitoid eventually eats up the vital organs inside its host, killing it. Tachinid fly larvae parasitize moths, butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, and stick insects but are not harmful to people or plants.
This type of tachinid fly glues its eggs to a monarch caterpillar. Sometimes the white eggs can be seen on the head or the body of a host animal. The eggs hatch and the maggots enter the host’s body. All fly larvae are called maggots.
Adult tachinid flies are free-living, they do not need a host to survive. Instead, they use food such as flower nectar. Tachinid flies have mouthparts that are adapted for lapping and sucking.
The adults will mate and the female will search for another host to parasitize, and the cycle will begin again.
To learn more about tachinid flies and to see them in action, order the Backyard Bugs DVD.
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