Callirhytis cryptica

Cynipidae

Zapatella

Quercus falcata

Alabama

Arkansas

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Mississippi

Missouri

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

West Virginia

Quercus myrtifolia

Zapatella cryptica (agamic)

Callirhytis cryptica

Quercus falcata, myrtifolia
Bud galls
Gall in center of enlarged and seemingly dead bud scales which are elongated and narrow. Terminal. Oct.

[Photo caption (no photo)]
Q myrtifolia, falcata. An enlarged terminal brown bud in Oct. Hidden within is a thin-walled eccentric cell with a tuft of hairs at apex. Adults emerged the next spring May 1.

Cynipid galls of the eastern United States

Callirhytis cryptica (Weld 1922)

Hosts: Quercus myrtifolia

[Asexual generation bud galls found in Florida in the fall.]

Using gall wasps on oaks to test broad ecological concepts

 Zapatella cryptica
(Weld) comb. n.

Callirhytis cryptica Weld, 1922b (female, galls).

Only the asexual generation is known. It induces bud galls on Quercus myrtifolia Willd. and Quercus falcata Michx. in the USA (Florida and Alabama) (Weld 1922b, Burks 1979).

Type galls were collected in October and adults emerged the next year in May (Weld 1922). The affected terminal bud cluster becomes enlarged, one or two green leaves sometimes grow out beyond the bud scales, and later the bud turns brown; the gall is completely hidden within the bud and is conical, with a thin-walled cell and a tuft of hairs near the apex (Weld 1922b).

A new genus of oak gallwasps, Zapatella Pujade-Villar & Melika, gen. n., with a description of two new species from the Neotropics (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini).