ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Trichopoda pictipennis is a species of brachycerous flies in the Tachinidae family of the genus Trichopoda, which parasitises bugs, especially Nezara viridula.

This species was confused with a nearby species, Trichopoda pennipes.

Taxonomy
This species is described by French entomologist Jacques Marie Frangile Bigot in 1876. It belongs to the subgenus Trichopoda (Galactomyia).

Etymologically, the name of the genus is built from the ancient Greek Trichopoda meaning "with hairy legs" and the specific epithet means "with painted wings", with reference to its bicolored wings.

It is confused with Trichopoda pennipes (Fabricius, 1781), also from Latin America, which is believed to be the species which arrived in Europe in 1980 or introduced in Australia (under the name of T. giacomellii), until 2021 when a study shows the error of attribution and corrects the identification.

Description
Medium-sized ( ), it has a large head, orange and black wings in males, brown and hyaline in females, black striped yellow thorax, orange abdomen, with dark orange apex in males, and black in females, however, with great variability in colour, ranging from very light to very dark. The legs are black, with the last light tarses, and the third pair of legs carries a comb of black hair, characteristic of all species of the genus Trichopoda. In females of T. pennipes there is no yellow on the wings, and in males it is less marked and does not start at the base of the wing. However, both species have extensive polymorphism, resulting in identification difficulties and confusion.

Distribution
It is native to the neotropical zone (South America). It was introduced as a means of biological control in Australia and New Zealand, although under the name T. giacomellii.

In Europe, it was accidentally introduced in the late 1980s into Italy, discovered near Rome International Airport and a military base, which is supposed to be its entry point, and where it is taken for Trichopoda pennipes (confusion that will only be lifted in 2021), then in Spain and Portugal, and in France, of which it has gone north. In 2011, it was seen in Portugal, the Netherlands and Slovenia. It is also found in Switzerland, Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, European Russia and even Western Asia, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. It is not yet known whether the species was introduced several times or whether all specimens were introduced from a single introduction with subsequent population propagation.

Ecology
It parasites the bugs of the family Pentatomidae. Its local host is Thyanta loser, but also today Nezara viridula, in a new association since this invasive bug arrived accidentally around 1700