Cynips (fulvicollis) latigenae, new species
agamic form

GALL.--Typical of the fulvicollis complex; always pubescent, not smooth; averaging 7.0 mm. in diameter. Figures 122, 123.

HOST.-Quercus utahensis [gambelii]

RANGE.-Utah : Kamas (types). Possibly wide-spread in the mountains of more northern Utah. Figure 120

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: second winter after formation of gall

This species was collected in Northern Utah, very near the extreme, northeastern limit of oak in the Rocky Mountain system, at a point over 800 miles west of the range known for the complex at the time of publication of our Cynips monograph. In this same period we have found the complex in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and in Eastern Colorado.

It is remarkable that latigenae very closely resembles the most northeastern member of the group, C. canadensis. The ranges of the two are separated by nearly 1000 miles of plains and mountains in which oak does not occur. I have considered the possibility of canadensis having been carried westward on nursery stock of its eastern host, Q. alba. The alternate genera tions of these insects live in small and inconspicuous cells in otherwise normal buds, and they might easily escape inspections exercised in horticultural quarantines. But we have good herbarium material of the oak host of our Kamas material, and it certainly belongs to the Utah species, Q. utahensis, and not to the Q. alba group of oaks.

Although the characters are few, I believe that latigemae can be separated from canadensis by its more brightly rufous face and legs, its slightly longer wings, and cheeks which are distinctly broadened back of the eyes. This last is the distinctive character. In canadensis the cheeks are not broadened behind the eyes, and the head, in dorsal aspect, appears solid, somewhat chunky. The protruding cheeks in latigemac give a dorsal aspect of a finely formed head that seems shallow in its anterior posterior dimension. Finally, the 15 galls which we have of latigenae are all roughened and entirely pubescent, never smooth and shining as they are in canadensis.

From insulensis, of the Black Hills of South Dakota, Eastern Colorado, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, the present species is well distinguished by its dark thorax, more poorly defined parapsidal grooves, and shorter wings.

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