Actia lamia is the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 of the genus Actia

Actia (genus)

Actia is a genus of large flies in the family Tachinidae.-Species:*Actia amblycera Aldrich, 1934*Actia americana*Actia ampla*Actia antiqua*Actia atra*Actia autumnalis *Actia biarticulata...

of the family Tachinidae

Tachinidae

Tachinidae is a large and rather variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. There are over 1300 species in North America. Insects in this family are commonly called tachina flies or simply tachinids...

..

Range

It is a common Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

n species, ranging extents from Italy in the south, to parts of Norway in the north, and from Great Britain (excluding Ireland) in the west to the Caucusus and parts of Siberia in the east.

Biology

Like most tachinids it is a parasitoid

Parasitoid

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host...

 of Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

. Its biology has not been well studied, but it has been reared from species of Epiblema

Epiblema

Epiblema is a genus of moths belonging to the subfamily Olethreutinae of the family Tortricidae.-Species:*Epiblema abruptana *Epiblema absconditana *Epiblema acceptana...

(microlepidoptera

Microlepidoptera

Microlepidoptera is an artificial grouping of moth families, commonly known as the 'smaller moths' . These generally have a wingspan of under 20 mm, and are thus harder to identify by external phenotypic markings than macrolepidoptera...

).