Cynips (dugèsi) subnigra, new species
agamic form

Cymips dugèsi simulatrix, err. det. Kinsey, 1930, Ind. Univ. Studies 84-86: 280 (Organ Mt. record only)

GALL.-Very similar to all galls of the C. bella and C. dugèsi complexes, apparently indistinguishable from galls of C. (bella) bella which occur in the same region. Mature galls rosy or brownish tan, unspotted or obscurely mottled, usually shining, often large, up to 25. mm., averaging near 20. mm. in diameter. Figure 62.

HOST.-Quercus grisea.

RANGE.-New Mexico: Las Cruces, 16 E (= Organ Mts.) (types). Soldedad Canyon in Organ Mts. (galls, L. H. Bridewell in Kinsey coll.). Possibly restricted to the Organ Mts. in Southeastern New Mexico; or possibly occurring in all the eastern mountains of New Mexico, south of Albuquerque. Figure 18.

LIFE HISTORY.—Adults: January 10, 26; February 5, 28

Subnigra has been taken only in the Organ Mountains of Southeastern New Mexico (just north of El Paso). It is one of the most surprising discoveries in the complex. While C. simulatrix, which is the wide-spread representative of the dugèsi complex in Southern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico, is matched by 2 species (emergens and deceptrix) in Mexico which are distinguished from simulatrix only with difficulty, the present species, subnigra, is abundantly distinct from everything else in the complex. Subnigra is the only species of the 23 which has a spot in the radial cell. It is a large-bodied, strikingly dark in sect with other distinctive characters. It is a long-winged insect interpolated between the short-winged brevipennata to the north and the short-winged pupoides to the south and east. It now remains to discover how many of our previously published records for simulatrix (Kinsey 1930: 280–281), based on galls alone, really apply to subnigra. Is subnigraactually restricted to the Organ Mountains; or is it the wide-spread species throughout New Mexico east of the Rio Grande and south of Albuquerque?

The galls of C. (dugèsi) subnigra are indistinguishable from the galls of C. (bella) bella. Both species occur on the same oaks in the Organ Mountains; but while subnigra does not occur south of that range, bella extends for 200 miles into the Sierra of Chihuahua.

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