Cynips (arida) conica Kinsey
agamic form

Cynips (Acraspis) conica Kinsey, 1930, Ind. Univ. Studies 84-86:338, figs. 57, 288-289, 336, 361, 404

GALL.-A smooth, pointed, conical gall with broadened base bearing spiny projections, differing in shape but similar in surface and internal structure to all other galls of the complex. Mature gall regularly or irregularly conical, up to 7.0 mm. in height, sometimes with tip rather sharply pointed and even curved; base sometimes flaring, its edge entire or bearing up to 6 short, blunt, spiny projections, up to 6.0 mm. in diameter; light pinkish brown in color, with a violet tinge due to a puberulence. Figure 133, 134.

HOST.-Quercus subturbinella (erroneously ascribed to Q. grisea in the original publication).

RANGE.-Arizona: Globe. Utah : Leeds (galls). Zion Park (galls). Apparently extending from the Apache Trail country of Central Ari zona to Southwestern Utah. Figure 131.

LIFE HISTORY.—Galls: immature first week in September. Adults: mostly emerged before January 20, stray adults after that date.

This insect is far enough removed from the others in the complex to have been published originally as a representative of another group, and it might still be maintained in that posi tion. In its nearly uniform brownish rufous color, in its rugose foveal groove, and particularly in its absence of infuscations and Splotches in the radial and cubital cells, this insect is distinct from any neighbor in the arida complex—although, curiously, it approaches the two most southern of the Mexican and, even more closely, the Guatemalan species of the complex. But conica is also close to C. arida in West Texas, and occupies a geographic area in which no other member of the complex occurs on the host, Q. subturbinella. Conica appears to be the host or geo graphic isolate, albeit an extreme development, of the arida complex. It is an academic question whether it should be considered in another complex, or a link in the endless chain of species by which one complex is transformed into another

Cynips (Acraspis) conica, new species
agamic form

GALL. — A smooth, pointed, conical leaf gall with the broadened base bearing spiny projections. Regularly or irregularly conical, up to 7.0 mm. in height; or the tip rather sharply pointed (and sometimes curved) ; the base sometimes flaring, its edge entire or bearing up to 6 short, blunt, spiny projections; the base up to 6.0 mm. in diameter; entirely smooth and glossy, or in part finely puberulent, light pinkish brown, with a violet tinge due to the puberulence. Internally filled with a rather compact mass of branched fibers, the larval cell rounded, up to 2.5 mm. in diameter, located very near the base of the gall. Attached by a slightly projecting point on the middle of the broad base, on the veins of the under surfaces of leaves of Quercus grisea. Figures 288- 289, 336.

RANGE — Arizona : Globe. Probably confined to a limited area including the country between Globe and Phoenix, Arizona. Figure 57.

When the type material was collected at Globe on January 20 (in 1920), most of the galls showed the holes thru which the adult gall makers had previously emerged ; but three adults emerged a few days after that. Emergence thus occurs in mid-January, even tho the winter season is rather severe in the mountains near Globe. No further life-history data are available, but judging from the related species of the genus, the gall may be expected to appear early in the summer. Other varieties of conica may be expected in Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, and further south in Mexico.