Cynips (dugèsi) lucaris, new species
agamic form

GALL.-Similar to all galls of the C. bella and C. dugèsi complexes. Mature galls light yellow to rosy tan, flushed rose when younger, darkening with age; up to 28. mm., averaging nearer 14. mm. in diameter.

HOST.-Quercus pilicaulis, a widespread tree with smoother, obovate, and crenate leaves—a “chestnut oak.”

RANGE.-Guatemala: Huehuetenango, 14 S, 7500'. Huehuetenango, 3 S, 7300'. Quiché, 2 N, 7500'. Sololá, 11 N, 8500': Sacapulas, 9 S, 6000' (galls). Guatemala City, 5 W, 6500'. Restricted to the one oak, but probably ranging throughout the high mountain mass of Southwestern Guatemala; possibly extending into the connecting mountains of Chiapas. Figure 18.

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: January 7, 8, 14, 15. February 1.

This insect and C. luminata are responsible for the oak apples of the main mountain mass of Southwestern Guatemala. Lucaris is confined to the smoother, crenate-leaved oak of the region, Q. pilicaulis. Luminata is in the same localities on the coarser leaved oak of the decipiens complex. The host of luminata usually occurs some hundreds or thousands of feet higher than the host of lucaris in the same mountain ranges. Both of the insects belong to the main line of the dugèsi complex, its geographically closest relative among our described species being C. longa from the southern end of the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. These Guatemalan insects are not related to the long-spined species of the complex.

Lucaris is readily distinguished from luminata by its generally dark color, especially by the large amount of black on the thorax and abdomen, by its slightly shortened wing with its com plex spotting in the cubital cell, the heavy blotch at the base of the cubital cell, the heavy infuscation and frequent spot in the radial cell, the shorter length of the whole insect (which averages near 2.9 mm.), and the smaller gall (which averages only about 1.4 mm.).

- Alfred Kinsey: (1936) Origin of higher categories in Cynips^©