Australian leafroller tachinid
The Australian leafroller tachinid is a fly from eastern Australia. It is mostly black, with shiny pearly white or golden stripes across its body. Farmers like it, because its babies grow inside the caterpillars of moths that damage crops.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
People brought it to New Zealand on purpose between 1967 and 1973 to fight farm pests like the light brown apple moth.
Its young can grow in the caterpillars of at least 18 different kinds of moths.
In New Zealand it also competes with the local helper insects that were there first.
The sides of its body are yellow.
It is often mixed up with a cousin that looks very similar, but the cousin has neat, unbroken stripes.
Most asked questions about Australian leafroller tachinid
?Is the Australian leafroller tachinid dangerous?
No. It is a fly that does not bite or sting people.
?Why did people bring it to New Zealand?
To help farmers, because its young grow inside the caterpillars of pest moths.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trigonospila brevifacies
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Tachinidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Tachinidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Australian leaf-roller fly, Leafroller fly
Where the facts come from
- Trigonospila brevifacies (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Trigonospila_brevifacies_1.jpg : John Tann from Sydney, Australia derivative work: Berichard ( talk ). CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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