Cynips quercus irregularis n. sp.
QUERCUS OBTUSILOBA [stellata]. Post Oak. Irregular, flattened galls, projecting on both sides of the leaf, yellow, when ripe and dry, and of a substance not unlike soft wood or pith, enclosing several hollow kernels.
Cynips quercus irregularis n. sp.
The sizie of this gall depends on the number of kernels it contains.
One specimen in my possession, about 0.4 long and 0.28 broad, is pierced with 16 holes through which its inmates had escaped; but they may have been small parasites. The average size of these galls is between a quarter of an inch and half an inch in length. Sometimes several of them are packed closely together and separated only by furrows. The color of the galls, when ripe is a light leather-yellow; their substance resembles then the pith of a plant, being softer than wood and still hard enough not to shrink in drying. When examined under a lens of moderate power, the gall appears to be covered with numerous little points or small cones, each bearing a few short hairs on the tip, which under such a magnifying power gives the surface a shaggy appearance. On the 29th of May, when I first discovered these galls, some of them, although yet green, were already pierced with holes. Other galls still contained larvae much later in the season. The only fly obtained from these galls was accidently injured, so that I can give only an incomplete description.
- Baron Osten Sacken: (1861) On the Cynipidae of the North American Oaks and their Galls©
Reference: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/22852#page/85/mode/1up