1985] 
Ashe — Meronera venustula 
199 
this reflects a true population sex bias then such an unusual sex 
ratio could result from several factors, including, but not limited to, 
differential production of sexes at zygote level, differential survivial 
of sexes of larvae, or differential survival of sexes in overwintering 
adult populations. It would be interesting to determine if the pro- 
portion of sexes in the population is equalized as the season 
progresses. 
There is a significant preoviposition period between the time 
adults emerge from hibernation and the time egg laying begins. This 
period lasted at least 20 days in laboratory cultures at 22-25° C. The 
probability that this period is not simply a result of delayed egg 
laying under unnatural conditions is indicated by the fact that no 
larvae were found in the field through at least May 3, 1984 when he 
last field sample was taken. Topp (1975a) noted that preoviposition 
of A theta fungi (Gravenhorst) is temperature dependant but is also 
influenced by photoperiod. These factors probably also have a sim- 
ilar effect on specimens of M. venustula. 
Developmental time of M. venustula averaged 15 days from ovi- 
position to adult and is relatively short among known developmen- 
tal times of aleocharine larvae. However, the larval period of 7.7 
days is much longer than the 3.2 days of the mushroom inhabitating 
aleocharine, Phanerotafasciata{ Say) (Ashe 1981). Among aleochar- 
ines which have more generalized habits, Topp (1971) found that 
preimaginal development of A theta sordida Marsham required an 
average of 31 days at 23° C and (1975a) that Atheta fungi requires 40 
days at 16°C. Topp also (1975a, 1975b) noted the purely tempera- 
ture dependent relationship between development of eggs, larvae 
and pupae of athetine aleocharines. It is reasonable to expect that 
development of M. venustula is similarly temperature dependent. 
Adults, and also larvae later in the season, would certainly be living 
under much lower average, and probably lower maximum, tempera- 
tures than those which they experienced under laboratory condi- 
tions. If true, then preimaginal development as well as such 
temperature influenced physiological processes such as preoviposi- 
tion period and oviposition rates, would be much slower under 
natural conditions than those reported here. 
Topp (1975b) also noted a relationship between survival of larvae 
and temperature. He found that most athetine larvae developed 
with less mortality at 16° C than at higher temperatures. He also 
found that larvae of Bolitochara lunulata Paykull were consistently 
