Neuroterus quaili Melika, Nicholls & Stone, sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Neuroterus quaili belongs to Kinsey’s subgenus Neospathegaster. Two other Neuroterus species are known to induce catkin galls on section Quercus oaks in California: N. floricola Kinsey, 1922 and N. florulentus Weld, 1957. Both induce different shaped and coloured galls to N. quaili: golden yellow-brown with an apical point in N. floricola, thin-walled, tan and ovate in N. florulentus. In contrast the gall of N. quaili is spherical, purplish, with quite a robust wall.

Gall. (Fig. 405). A monolocular catkin gall, 2–3 mm diameter, spherical, purple with paler mottling, on flowers rather than on the catkin stem, relatively robust wall around larval cell. Probably the same as the undescribed gall in Fig. 40 of Weld (1957a).

Biology. Galls develop on Q. berberidifolia, mature in April; adults emerge soon afterwards. Only females were reared, with males as yet unknown; however, the spring phenology of this gall suggests that it is a sexual generation.

Distribution. USA, California, Quail Ridge Reserve.

- George Melika, James Nicholls, Warren Abrahamson, Eileen Buss, Graham Stone: (2021) New species of Nearctic oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini)^©