Compsilura concinnata

Compsilura concinnata (tachinid fly; order Diptera) is a parasitoid native to Europe that was introduced to North America in 1906 to control invasive populations of the exotic spongy moth (Lymantria dispar), which primarily infests forests. The fly is an endoparasitoid of insect larvae that lives within its host for most of its life. The parasitoid eventually kills the host and occasionally eats it. It attacks over 200 host species, mainly insects from the orders Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera.

As C. concinnata attacks many different types of hosts, it has spilled over from the intended forest systems into other areas such as agricultural fields, parasitizing such cabbage pests as the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) and the exotic invasive cabbage white (Pieris rapae), as well as other invasive species such as the brown-tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea). However, it also attacks native, non-pest insects, including the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), the cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia), the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea), the luna moth (Actias luna), and the buck moth (Hemileuca maia).