Cynips (plumbea) subcostalis, new species
agamic form

GALL.-Similar to gall of C. scutata. Very large, spherical, promi nently elongated into a conical or truncate base; dull, only slightly shriveling; light gray scurf prominent, quite persistent; denuded surface of gall rosy tan or (more often) a peculiar salmon or rosy brown to dark brown in color; up to 12.0 mm., averaging nearer 10.0 mm. in diameter. Figure 104.

HOSTS.—Quercus macrophylla and Q. nudinervis [both magnoliifolia] two oaks that seem more closely related than the botanists have indicated. These were the only white oaks we found in the area.

RANGE.-Guerrero: Chilpancingo, 6 S, 4000' (Q. macrophylla, types; Q. nudinervis). Tierra Colorada, 14 N, 3200' (Q. macrophylla). Probably confined to a more western portion of Guerrero and immediately adjacent states in Southwestern Mexico. Figure 102.

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: February 10. March 10, 18, 26. April 9, 10, 15. Emergence mostly late in March and early April.

This species is known only from the western half of the state of Guerrero. The insect is close to C. fuscipennis which occurs in a territory just north and east. From fuscipennis, subcostalis is, however, perfectly distinct in having a very light, almost straw brown body, in having the full dorsal half of the abdomen naked, and in having a gall which is very large, basically conical, and peculiarly pink or salmon brown in color. The gall of subcostalis is nearly duplicated by the gall of scutata, a species which occurs on Q. macrophylla (not on Q. nudinervis) in the eastern part of Guerrero (known from near Taxco).

The galls collected on January 8, 1932, were peculiarly fresh and not yet mature—less mature than the galls of any other species of the complex which we had collected after the middle of November. The galls of subcostalis may be delayed because their hosts occur in Southern Mexico at lower elevations (down to 3200 feet), in regions which are warmer than most of those in which we found oak in that country.

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