Cynips (bella) pomifera, new species
agamic forms

GALL.-Similar to all galls of the bella and dugèsi complexes. Mature galls rosy or (more often) light yellow tan, always conspicuously mottled with purplish brown; sometimes large, up to 22. mm., but averaging much smaller, usually not over 14. mm. in diameter. Figure 92.

HOSTS.—Quercus chihuahuensis, Q. undata. Probably on the other white oaks of the region.

RANGE.-Chihuahua: Namiquipa, 30 W, 5200' (Q. chihuahuensis). Madera, 10 SE (Q. chihuahuensis). Matachic, 3 N, 6700' (Q. chihuahuensis). Pedernales, 2 E, 7500' (Q. chihuahuensis). Santa ſsabel, 6 E, 6000' (Q. undata, types). Santa Isabel, 16 E, 6000' (Q. chihuahuensis, Q. undata). Apparently restricted to a portion of the Mexican Sierra in Central Chihuahua, known from Namiquipa to Santa ſsabel. Figure 96.

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: January 20, 29, 30. February 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 15, 28. March 2. Most of the emergence early in February.

While Cynips (bella) bella ranges widely over Southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, C. (bella) pomifera is restricted to the 90 miles of Sierra which lie between Las Cruces and Santa Ísabel in more southern Chihuahua. This area represents only the southern half of the range of C. (dugèsi) emergens, an insect which produces a gall indistinguishable from that of pomifera. Pomifera and aspera agree in having rather small, light yellowish tan galls which are conspicuously mottled with purplish brown, and in this character they are distinct from the more northern species of the complex. The mottled galls of these two more southern species of the bella complex are readily distinguishable from the uniformly colored, dull-surfaced galls of the dugèsi species which occur in the same area.

All of the galls of C. (bella) bella from north of Las Cruces, Chihuahua, are uniformly colored, unmottled; all of the galls of C. (bella) pomifera from south of Namiquipa are conspicuously mottled. However, the collections from Las Cruces and from Namiquipa include galls of both types, thus giving evidence of some interbreeding of bella and pomifera where the two ranges meet. The insects from those localities also show some hybridization, although their characters are too indefinite to give as clear evidence as the galls supply. Considering the proportional amounts of the characters appearing in each locality, we have listed Las Cruces, Chihuahua, in the range of C. bella, and the more southern locality, Namiquipa, in the range of C. pomifera; but it is to be understood that both of these are in a transition area between the two ranges.

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