Cynips (dugèsi) spinifera, new species
agamic form

GALL.-Similar to all galls in the C. bella and C. dugès i complexes. Mature galls light straw tan to yellowish brown, less often tending to brownish or purplish olive, rarely rosy, practically unmarked, with a con spicuous bluish puberulence; rather small galls, up to 17. mm., averaging near 13. mm. in diameter. Figure 55.

HOST.-Quercus conglomerata [rugosa], the larger, common white oak of the region.

RANGE.-Michoacán: Morelia, 14 E, 7000' (types). Purépero, 5 W, 8500'. Probably restricted to a limited mountain area in the Mexican Cordil lera of Michoacán. Figure 18.

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: January 2, 25. February 15. March 22. April 10, 15. Most of the emergence late in March.

This long-spined insect is a very close duplicate of the short spined C. (dugèsi) spadia and of the long-spined C. spiculi which occur in the adjacent states of Guerrero and of Mexico, respectively. The galls of spinifera are distinctly small and never as rosy brown as the galls of spadix.

Spinifera is still more closely matched by C. spinalis which occurs in another adjacent area, namely in Morelos. In spinifera and spinalis the spine, mesopleuron, and gall characters are the same, but the areolet of spinifera is always smaller, and the thoracic lines darker than in spinalis.

In the same area with spinifera, the alpine dwarf oak, Q. repanda, bears a short-winged species of the dugèsi complex, C. pumilio.

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