Andricus mexicanus

Andricus nievesaldreyi

Arizona

New Mexico

Texas

Cynipidae

Striatoandricus

Quercus laeta

Quercus magnoliifolia

Quercus rugosa

Avispas agalladoras de los encinos de Santa Fe (Ciudad de México, México) (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae: Cynipini; Fagaceae)

New species and synonymy of American Cynipidae

Striatoandricus nievesaldreyi (agamic)

Andricus ? mexicana n. sp. (galls only)

"Mountain near Guadalajara, Mexico; on the only large leaved oak that grows there." This is all I know of this species, except what I learn from the gall itself. I do not know who collected it, nor to whom I am indebted for the fine specimens that came to me in a chip-box a year or two ago. I suspect that my friend, B. Fickman Mann, sent them, and that they came from Dr. Palmer's collection. 

I have no insects reared from these galls, but they are probably produced by an Andricus. They are the largest woolly leaf gall known to me, measuring more than an inch and a half by an inch in length and breadth, and more than three-fourths of an inch in thickness. The color is a rusty yellowish brown. On removing the long and exceedingly thick, woolly covering from the nucleus, I found several openings, through which the insects had escaped. The nucleus is rather hard, and has, internally, a vitrified or crystalline appearance. 

The larvae are imbedded in this and have no larval cell separable from it. The galls are sessile on the midvein, on the upper surface of the leaf, and the point of attachment extends along the vein one- fourth of an inch. The leaves of the oak are very large, measuring more than six inches in width, and the species is probably Q. crassifolia, at least the leaves agree with the description and illustration of this species as given in Humboldt and Bonpland's " Plantes Equinoctiales." [Based on modern information, this assumption was apparently incorrect, and Q magnoliifolia is a more likely host.]

New Species of North American Cynipidae (1890)

Andricus mexicanus, new species

[This is a partial synonymy; Kinsey took galls now thought to be induced by [Striatoandricus guatemalensis](https://www.gallformers.org/gall/4220) in Guatemala and nievesaldreyi in Mexico to be a single species. This record only includes information now referable to nievesaldreyi.]

Hosts: Quercus macrophylla

Range: Mexico: "Mountains near Guadalajara" (Bassett); Sierra de Nayarit, Jalisco.

Gall: A large mass of wool, about hemispherical, 2.0-3.5 mm. in diameter, lemon-yellow to bright orange-brown; the hairs crystalline, brittle, forming a coating on the central core about 10 mm. thick; the core polythalamous, of a dense, crystalline material, without separable larval cells. On the midvein, on the upper sides of leaves of an oak, Quercus macrophylla Nee? (Prof. Jack det.).

The gall is a splendid thing and must be very attractive if at all abundant in its range. The recorded stations are over one thousand miles apart, for apparently this is the same species of which Cameron and Bassett have described the gall, though neither obtained the adult. Bassett said that the host of his galls was probably Q crassifolia [a red-group oak, not plausible for this wasp].

Andricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar nom. nov.

Andricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar is proposed as a new name for Andricus mexicanus Kinsey, 1920. Andricus mexicanus Bassett, 1890 and Cynips guatemalensis Cameron, 1883 are considered as incertae sedis.

Diagnosis: A mexicanus [nievesaldreyi] differs [from [S georgei](https://www.gallformers.org/gall/3860)] in the size of the galls (larger in A. mexicanus), the appearance of the galls (never brown in S georgei), and the location of the galls (on the top of the leaves in A. mexicanus).

Kinsey (1920: 309) described A. mexicanus in 1919 from four adults extracted from galls located on the upper side of the leaves, collected by Diquet in 1900 in the Sierra de Nayarit (Jalisco, Mexico), presumably in Q. magnoliifola Née (= Q. macrophylla Née). On the other hand, Kinsey added to this new species the collections of Bassett (1890) made in the mountains of Guadalajara and those of Cameron from San Jeronimo (Guadalajara) [a mistake, corrected in later work; this should read San Jeronimo (Guatemala)], corresponding to Andricus mexicana Bassett, 1890, and Cynips guatemalensis Cameron, 1883. Kinsey's species is a homonym of Bassett's, so we propose a new name, Andricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar nom. nov., for Andricus mexicanus Kinsey, 1920. 

Because A mexicana Bassett and Cynips guatemalensis Cameron were described only from their velvety leaf galls, we must consider both species as incertae sedis until adults are reared from similar gills, since we cannot know if they correspond to A. nievesaldreyi or A. georgei or a different species.

Una nueva especie mexicana del género Andricus con caracteres muy peculiares: A. georgei Pujade-Villar n. sp.(Hymenoptera, Cynipidae)

Stiatoandricus [sic] nievesaldreyi n. comb.

Andricus mexicanus Kinsey 1920: 309 [non Andricus mexicana Bassett, 1890]
Andricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar 2011; in Pujade-Villar et al. 2011: 32 [new name]

[No description or photos of the gall are included]

Hosts: The first hosts for this species are mentioned here: Q. laeta Liebm., Q. magnoliifolia Née and Q. rugosa Née (Quercus section).

Distribution: México, described from material collected in the Sierra de Nayarit (Jalisco, México). Its distribution also includes in the states of Ciudad México, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Morelos and Tlaxcala. 

Remarks: Kinsey (1920) described Andricus mexicanus from four adults that emerged in 1919 from galls on the upper side of leaves. Those galls were collected in 1900 by Diquet in Sierra de Nayarit (Jalisco, México) presumably from Q. magnifolia Née (= Q. macrophylla Née). Kinsey (1920) assigned to this species the individuals determined as Andricus mexicana Bassett, 1890 and Cynips guatemalensis Cameron, 1883 from the collections of Bassett (1890) at Guadalajara mountains (México) and Cameron (1883) at San Jerónimo (Guadalajara, México), respectively. A solution for the homonymy between Kinsey’s and Bassett’s species was proposed in Pujade-Villar et al. (2011) by changing the name of Andricus mexicanus Kinsey 1920 to Andricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar 2011. The species A. mexicana Bassett and C. guatemalensis Cameron were only described through velvety galls on leaves. Both adults with smooth metasoma (Andricus tecturnarum group) and with striate metasoma (Striatoandricus) emerge from this type of galls from USA and México. Thus, Pujade-Villar et al. (2011) considered those two species incertae sedis until similar galls are collected at the type localities and the adults emerge. 

A New Genus of Oak Gall Wasp, Striatoandricus Pujade-Villar (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini) from America with Descriptions of Two New Mexican Species

Striatoandricus nievesaldreyi Pujade-Villar, In Pujade-Villar et al. (2011: 32), In Cuesta-Porta et al. (2020a: 13)

Gall (Figs. 7c-d): Found adhered to the central vein on the upper side of the leaves (rarely on the underside). Very similar to the previous one but larger in size, generally oval in outline, with a reddish-brown pubescence, longer and denser.

Hosts: Quercus laeta, Q. magnoliifolia, and Q. rugosa (section Quercus).

Biology: The whitish galls form from September and mature in December. Adults emerge from December to April.

Distribution: Mexico (Mexico City, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, and Tlaxcala); cited from Santa Fe in Cuesta-Porta et al. (2020) on Q. laeta.

[Striatoandricus guatemalensis](https://www.gallformers.org/gall/4220) was originally described from galls observed by Cameron on an unknown oak species in Guatemala, and possibly (see above) from wasps cut from those galls. Bassett later described Andricus ? mexicana from galls sent to him from Guadalajara, Mexico, without adult wasps. Kinsey received adult wasps cut from galls collected in Jalisco, Mexico. On the basis of those adults and galls, he formally described Andricus mexicanus and made Cynips guatemalensis a junior synonym, assuming it was the same species responsible for Bassett's galls in Mexico and Cameron's galls in Guatemala. Ritchie and Shorthouse repeat this synonymy but assert A guatemalensis as the valid name. 

In 2011, Pujade-Villar et al created a new name, Andricus nievesaldreyi, to resolve the homonymy of Bassett's Andricus mexicana and Kinsey's Andricus mexicanus. They applied this name exclusively to Kinsey's A mexicanus and specifically excluded Bassett's gall from synonymy, effectively reversing Kinsey's original synonymy of those species. In more recent work, the Pujade-Villar group maintained Ritchie and Shorthouse's synonymy of Synergus dorsalis with guatemalensis, but did not list Bassett or Kinsey's mexicana/us as synonyms. Because of the lack of an adult specimen and the minimal gall description, Bassett's A mexicana may or may not match Kinsey's A mexicanus, now S nievesaldreyi. Bassett's galls are consistent in range (Mexico) and location (upper side of the leaf) with S nievesaldreyi and differ from S guatemalensis (Guatemala, lower side of the leaf). 