Australasian/Oceanian Diptera Catalog -- Web Version

The Oestridae, whose species are commonly known as warble flies or nasal bot flies, are parasitic species represented in the Australasian/Oceanian Regions primarily by Old World cosmopolitan species that have been introduced with their hosts. The only endemic species is Tracheomyia macropi, a tracheal parasite of kangaroos in Australia, which was originally described from only the larvae. Paramonov (1953a) gave the first description of the adult female. Grunin (1961) and Mykytowycz (1964) gave details on the biology of Tracheomyia and illustrated the larva.

Immatures of oestrids, because of their subcutaneous parasitic habit in mammals, are more easily found than adults. Their distribution follows that of their hosts. Cattle, horses, goats, and sheep are animals most affected by the actions of the larvae of these flies, which can cause hide spoilage, severe debilitation, and even death.

Wood (1987) considers the Oestridae to be a monophyletic family composed of 4 subfamilies: Cuterebrinae (restricted to the New World), Gasterophilinae, Hypodermatinae, and Oestrinae. Others (e.g., Soós & Minar 1986 a,b,c) have treated the last 3 subfamilies as separate families. I follow Hennig (1973) and previous regional catalog treatments (e.g., Pont 1977b,c; 1980a,b) in treating the Gasterophilidae and Oestridae as separate families with the Hypodermatinae as a subfamily of the latter.
Ref.: Papavero (1977a, world classif. excl. Hypodermatinae).

HYPODERMA Latreille, 1818: 272. Type species: Oestrus bovis Linnaeus, 1758, mon.
MARMARYGA. Gistl, 1848: ix (unjust. alt. name for Hypoderma). LITHOHYPODERMA Townsend, 1917a: 129. Type species: Musca ascarides Scudder, 1877, orig. des.

bovis Linnaeus, 1758: 584 (Oestrus ). Not given [Sweden]; Hawaiian Is, NZ (NZ); widesp. Afrotrop., Holarctic, Neotrop. Regs.
     bovis De Geer, 1776: 297 (Oestrus ). Not given [unknown]. [Preocc. Linnaeus, 1758.]
lineatum Villers, 1789: 349 (Oestrus ). "Europa"; Hawaiian Is; virtually cosmopol. (excl. Australia, NZ).

TRACHEOMYIA Townsend, 1916d: 160. Type species: Oestrus macropi Froggatt, 1913, orig. des.
macropi Froggatt, 1913: 565 (Oestrus ). Australia (NSW); Australia (Qld, WA).

CEPHALOPSIS Townsend, 1912: 53. Type species: Oestrus maculatus Wiedemann, 1830 [= Oestrus titillator Clark, 1816], orig. des. [Preocc. Fitzinger, 1874.]
CEPHALOPINA Strand, 1928: 48 (n.n. for Cephalopsis ).
titillator Clark, 1816: 4 (Oestrus). Syria; Australia (NT); India, n. Africa, s. Europe, c. Palearctic Reg.[in association with camels.]