Atrusca spinescens (agamic)

Family: Cynipidae | Genus: Atrusca
Detachable: detachable
Color: brown, pink, red, yellow, purple, tan
Texture: glaucous
Abundance:
Shape: globular, sphere
Season: Fall, Winter
Related:
Alignment:
Walls: thin, radiating-fibers
Location: lower leaf, leaf midrib
Form: oak apple
Cells: monothalamous
Possible Range:i
Common Name(s):
Synonymy:
Name
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Notes
Cynips (dugesi) spinescens
Cynips spinescens

Origin of higher categories in Cynips
“

Cynips (dugèsi) spinescens, new species
agamic form

GALL.—Very similar to all galls of the C. bella and C. dugèsi complexes. Mature galls in part light yellowish tan and in part rich rosy or purplish brown, usually well marked with purple spots or streaks, with traces of a bluish bloom; of moderate size or smaller, up to 19. mm., aver aging nearer 14. mm. in diameter. Figure 68.

HOST.-Quercus Purpusi, the rusty, pubescent white oak of the region.

RANGE.-Mexico: JilĂłtepec, 7 NW, 9500' (types). Probably restricted to a small area in the high mountains about 45 miles northwest of Mexico City. Figure 18

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: March 6, 17

In the mountains east, south, and west of Mexico City, the dugèsi complex is represented by C. pumilio (on Quercus repanda) and C. spiculi (on all other white oaks), but in the high mountains 45 miles northwest of Mexico City we found this long spined species, spinescens, as the segregate of the complex. The locality is similarly about 45 miles east of Pachuca, where pumilio and longa are the dugèsi species, and perhaps 80 miles from a locality north of QuerÊtaro where we found C. (dugèsi) vulgata. Spinescens is, therefore, probably restricted to a limited mountain area in and adjacent to the northwestern corner of the state of Mexico. It is a long-spined species very close to the long spined spiculi and the short-spined longa. It is to be distinguished from spiculi in averaging smaller in size, in having a radial cell which is relatively longer because the second abscissa of the radius is not so strongly curved in its terminal third, and in having galls which are at least in part yellow tan with a rather obvious spotting of purple. The gall characters alone would mark it as a distinct species.

”

- Alfred Kinsey: (1936) Origin of higher categories in CynipsŠ


Further Information:
Author(s)
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Year
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Title
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License
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VICTOR CUESTA-PORTA, GEORGE MELIKA, MAR FERRER-SUAY, ALEXIS VERA-ORTIZ, JULI PUJADE-VILLAR
2025
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

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