A new species, Oeneis excubitor, is described. This species has male valvae similar to those of Oeneis melissa and Oeneis jutta but the wing pattern is roughly similar to that of Oeneis chryxus.

A protease digestion technique for preparing insect chemosensilla for observation at high magnifications under the Scanning Electron Microscope is described. Treatment with protease for 30 min or more followed by sonication removes material normally obscuring pores and surface grooves. This allows surface details and terminal valves to be seen under the SEM. The chemoreceptive hairs of insects can now be rapidly classified as having primarily a contact or olfactory function based on the presence or absence of visible terminal openings on some of the sensilla. Trypsin treatment was less useful, and neuraminidase had little effect. These results indicate that the material extruded onto the surface of the sensillum is proteinaceous.

Starved M. corollae Fab. larvae captured prey more quickly than unstarved larvae and older larvae, except those approaching pupation, sooner than younger larvae. Generally, older larvae also consumed prey more quickly but starvation increased prey handling time because starved larvae extracted 43% more, on average, from prey before discarding them. Significance of these findings for survival of M. corollae is discussed.

Larvae of species representing 12 of the 13 genera of the superfamily Lebertioidea from North America are described, including members of the genera Bandakiopsis, Utaxatax, Estelloxus, and Testudacarus for the first time. Larvae of species of Sperchon, Sperchonopsis, Teutonia, Bandakia, Lebertia, Oxus, Frontipoda, and Torrenticola are also described to provide complete comparative data for the genera of the superfamily. A key to the families and genera of Lebertioidea, and preliminary diagnoses for the superfamily, families, and genera are provided based upon larval characters. Information on host associations is reviewed for each taxon. Observations on morphology and host associations of these larvae provide the basis for an original, though provisional, outline of phylogeny of Lebertioidea, and a review of the higher classification of the superfamily.

Aggregation of adult males is a widespread phenomenon among many species of Diptera, as well as among several groups of other insects (Downes 1969; McAlpine and Munroe 1968; Sullivan 1981). The function of such behavior, once controversial, is now generally conceded to be a mechanism for assembling the sexes in a sufficiently small area to ensure mating. The apparent scarcity of females, earlier thought to be an argument against this hypothesis, has been explained by the brevity of their visit, presumably only once in the lifetime of many, and only long enough to be intercepted by a waiting male (Papavero 1977). Adult acrocerids are rarely collected and little is known about their biology. Those species that have been reared are, during their larval stages, all internal parasitoids of true spiders (Araneae) (Schlinger 1981). The present paper describes the aggregation of males of Turbopsebius sulphuripes (Loews), and the presence of two others, Acrocera melanderi Cole and Pterodontia flavipes Gray, on a hilltop in southwestern Quebec.