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The article offers information on a study related to hilltopping in insects belonging to the subfamilies Myopinae and Dalmanniinae, which is behavior of males aggregating on a peak and mating with the females flying there. It further informs that several studies were previously conducted for studying hilltoping in species including Conopidae. It mentions that hilltoping is a strategy which is adopted for mate finding in insects which includes rare species or widely dispersed species.

Abstract: The first attempt to phylogenetically place Conopidae using molecular characters, as well as the largest molecular analysis of relationships within Schizophora (Diptera) to date, is presented. Twenty-eight taxa from 11 acalyptrate families and seven acalyptrate superfamilies are represented. Nearly 12,800bp of sequence data from 10 genes representing both mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase I (COI), cytochrome b (cytB), and 12S) and nuclear genes (28S, the carbamoyl phosphate synthetase region of CAD (CAD), elongation factor-1α (EF-1α), white, alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AATS), triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), and phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD)) are analysed. Parsimony and Bayesian analyses strongly support the monophyly of both Conopidae and Schizophora. While in the parsimony analysis, Conopidae are placed as sister to the remaining Schizophora, the Bayesian analysis recovers a Conopidae+Lauxaniidae clade. The value of nuclear, mitochondrial, ribosomal, and protein-coding gene sequence data for answering phylogenetic questions at different levels of divergence is evaluated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The effects of host size and host species on the prevalence and fitness of conopid flies (Diptera: Conopidae) parasitizing bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) were investigated. Field data from nine sites across south-western Alberta, Canada, showed that conopids parasitized, on average, 12.3% of workers and 3.5% of male bees. In general, bee mass was a better predictor of host use and conopid offspring size than bee species. Host mass could not, however, explain the very low prevalence of conopids in the long-tongued bumblebee, Bombus californicus Smith, or in male bees in general. Conopids predominately infested bees of intermediate size, and as a result, occurred most commonly in the intermediately sized species, B. flavifrons Cresson. Host quality, in terms of conopid offspring size, increased as a non-linear function of bee size. The results are discussed with respect to the impact of conopids on bumblebee populations, and the relation between host quality and patterns of host use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]