Parasitism of adult Tabanus subsimilis subsimilis Bellardi (Diptera: Tabanidae) by a miltogrammine sarcophagid (Diptera: Sarcophagidae)

Larvae of unidentified sarcophagids were found in association with adults of Tabanus sulcifrons Macq. and T. nigripes Wied. in Texas in 1975. In the following year, larvae were removed from an adult female of T. subsimilis subsimilis Bellardi in the laboratory there. Methods are described by which sarcophagid larvae were reared in the laboratory in adult females of Tabanus spp. The sarcophagid was identified as a species of Macronychia near to M. aurata (Coq.); its development period and larval behaviour are described. It was found to be a common facultative parasite of adults of T. s. subsimilis in the vicinity of the airport sewage-treatment plant near College Station from 29 May to 14 July 1976. This host-parasite association is apparently the first described instance of parasitism between a sarcophagid and a tabanid. The Miltogrammini, to which the genus Macronychia belongs, are characteristically parasites attacking the immobilised insect prey of wasps and bees.