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Updated: May 23, 2025
Not even the lily-dweller, with her dirty ways, is safe. Her grub is as often the prey of another Tachina, larger than that of the Field Crioceris. The parasite, I am convinced, does not sow her eggs upon the victim so long as the latter is wrapped in its repulsive great-coat; but a moment's imprudence gives her a favourable opportunity.
The Ichneumon flies, of which there are undoubtedly several thousand species in this country, are the most common insect parasites. Next to these are the different species of Tachina and its allied genera.
If they have issued from the same stock, how have they acquired such dissimilar talents? Furthermore, have these talents developed by degrees? The Lily-beetle is prepared to tell us. Her grub, let us suppose, once conceived the notion, when tormented by the Tachina, of making the stercoral slit open above.
All that is left of them is a dry skin which tears from end to end, half uncovering a Fly-pupa. A few days later, the parasite emerges. It is a small, greyish Fly, fiercely bristling with sparse hairs, half the size of the House-fly, whom it resembles slightly. It belongs to the Tachina group, who, in their larval form, so often inhabit the bodies of caterpillars.
If these received a bite, the host would die and so would they. Towards the end of their growth, prudence and discretion being no longer essential, they make a complete clearance of the victim, leaving only the skin, which will serve them for a shelter. One satisfaction is vouchsafed me in these horrible orgies: I see that the Tachina in her turn is subjected to severe reductions.
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