Biorrhiza forticornis

Xanthoteras forticorne

Synonymy for the gall only; this name originally applied to an inquiline

Cynips quercus ficus

Cynipidae

Trigonaspis

Quercus alba

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Quercus macrocarpa

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Quercus montana

Quercus prinoides

Cynipid galls of the eastern United States

Trigonaspis quercusforticorne (agamic)

Cynips quercus-ficus Fitch

Surrounding the twigs of white oaks in a dense cluster, resembling preserved figs packed in boxes, each molded to the shape of those pressing against its sides, hollow bladder-like galls of the pale dull yellow color of a faded oak leaf, each gall producing a small black fly with the lower half of its head, its antennae and legs pale dull yellow, its hind shanks dusky and its abdomen beneath reddish-brown, its antennae with fifteen and in the female thirteen joints. Length 0.06, females 0.10, and to the end of their wings 0.14. (Fitch.)

Galls which apparently belong to the above species were received June 10, 1882, from Miss Kath. Parsons, South Lancashire, Mass., who found them on the oak at Breakheart Hill, Saugus, Mass., and several of the gall-flies were bred from them between July 1 and July 13. 

Apparently the same kind of galls were found July 20, 1883, in Virginia on Q. alba. From these issued, from August 16, 1883, to April 21, 1884, numerous parasites, belonging to the genera Torymus, Ormyrus, Decatoma, and a Cecidomyid. 

The Cynips, which are wingless, differ from those from Miss Parsons in that they were winged. They commenced to issue January 30, 1884, and kept on issuing through the whole of February. 

From a few galls, received March 19, 1883, two specimens, also wingless, issued February 9, 1884, and large numbers of wingless insects issued from a lot of galls collected by Mr. Koebele at Meredith Village, N. H., in September, 1883, in the same month. Among these last was also one winged specimen of probably a different species. (Riley's unpublished notes.)

Fifth report on the noxious and other insects of the State of New York

Cynips quercus ficus Fitch (autumnal)

white oak

Well figured and described, NY Rep II 314. Some of the central cells in these galls contain in February living larvae about .05 inch long and occasionally a blackish pupa about .08 inch long, evidently from the structure of its antennae chalcididous. About one-fourth of these galls in the winter exhibit external perforations, and their central cells are then invariably perforated, indicated that the maker of the gall had already vacated his cell. With such as are not perforated, the central cell generally contains in February and March the above-mentioned chalcididous larva or pupa, which is in no doubt identical with a Chalcidide that I have bred abundantly in May from these galls. The cells in which the guest gall-fly most probably lives are attached to the external rind of some few galls only, in addition to the central cell which is found in every gall and in which, according to all analogy, the maker of the gall must reside. I have found larvae in March in some of these external cells; and in the same gall in which one of the external cells was tenanted by a larva, the central cell was also tenanted by a chalcididous larva; thus furnishing confirmatory evidence, that in certain cases the guest gall-fly does not destroy the gall-fly, or, which is the same thing, its chalcididous parasite. The twigs on which the galls are placed, unless very large, always perish the next season, and where recent galls are found, a great quantity of old, last year's, dry galls on dry and half-rotten twigs may always be observed. This circumstance seems to have led Dr Fitch to imagine that there were two crops of these galls every year. He makes the same supposition with regard to the galls seminator Harris and q inanis OS, but in the latter case I know from close and continued observation that the supposition is incorrect. I doubt the fact of any oak-inhabiting Psenide being double-brooded. The gall q ficus occurs near Rock Island IL chiefly on unthrifty sprouts 2 or 3 feet high growing round the stumps of young white oaks, and never on trees of any size. Dr Fitch found them "on the long slender shoots of young and thriftily growing white oaks." I have seen them only once or twice in such a situation and then not 7 feet from the ground. The fact of their not occurring on large trees is explained by the gall-producing insect being, as I believe, subapterous. 

On Dimorphism in the Hymenopterous Genus Cynips: With an Appendix, Containing Hints for a New Classification of Cynipidae and a List of Cynipidae, Including Descriptions of Several New Species, Inhabiting the Oak-galls of Illinois

Xanthoteras, gen. nov.

The type of the genus is Biorrhiza forticornis, Walsh.

Descriptions of Five New Genera in the Family Cynipidae

Xanthoteras forticornis Walsh 

Cynips quercus-forticornis Walsh
Cynips forticornis
Teras forticornis
Cynips quercus-ficus
Biorhiza forticornis
Xanthoteras forticornis

Many of these galls are pressed together so closely on the twig as to lose all normal form, becoming flattened. Thin-walled, one-celled, the larval cell held in place by radiating fibers. Yellow, sometimes with red sides, turning brown. Common on white oak, Quercus alba. Insects emerged from July 1 to 13. [likely in error]

Insect galls of Springfield, Massachusetts, and vicinity

Xanthoteras forticornis

The oak-fig gall on Quercus alba has been observed at Cayuta Lake, Riverhead (Crosby), and Ithaca, N. Y.; Pitman (Bradley), X. J.; Ironton, Mo.; Tuskahoma, Okla. ; Evanston, Glencoe, and Fort Sheridan, III.; AVashington, D. C. : and Bluemont, Va. At Miller, Ind., it was just beginning to develop on June 30 and at Toronto Brodie says they begin to appear toward the end of June. At Riverhead they contained pupae on September 30. Galls collected at Ironton in October, 1917, containing adults were put out of doors in cage on ground on November 26 at Evanston, IL. On December 10 the thermometer registered —14° F. On December 18, when thawing again, dozens of flies were actively crawling about in the cage, having emerged either since November 26 or since December 10. More were found in cage February 19, 1918, and more March 11 and March 23. Brodie found the gall common at Toronto where adults issued November 4, 1885, and from November 12-21, 1886, over 300 were reared from another lot of galls. Some lived till January 29 but none survived winter. He examined over 800 specimens without finding a male. He says they oviposit in the roots. He received galls from 100 miles west of Winnipeg in Manitoba and says the producers could not be separated from Ontario specimens. He also had galls from Port Sidney, Muskoka, from which flies issued November 9. 

Field notes on gall-inhabiting cynipid wasps with descriptions of new species

Xanthoteras forticorne agamic

Quercus alba, macrocarpa, prinoides, prinus [montana], 
Stem galls, detachable
Oak Fig Gall. Dense cluster usually on sprouts from stumps, persisting over winter.

[Photo caption]
On Q alba. Oak Fig Gall. Also on Q prinus, prinoides. Adults emerged in Jan and Feb. See Fig. 51 [Xanthoteras radicola] for the alternating sexual generation at the base of stump on whose sprouts was this gall the fall before.

Trigonaspis quercusforticorne (Weld) comb. nov.

Seven Xanthoteras species here are transferred to Trigonaspis. . . Trigonaspis quercusforticorne (Weld) comb. nov.


Review of the world genera of oak cynipid wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini)

Trigonaspis ? quercusforticorne (Walsh, 1864) Incertae sedis

Cynips q. forticornis Walsh, 1864: 490.
Cynips (Teras) forticornis (Walsh) Osten Sacken, 1865: 340, 350, 353.
Cynips forticornis (Walsh) Bassett, 1870: xvi.
Xanthoteras forticornis (Walsh) Ashmead 1897b: 262. 
Biorhiza forticornis (Walsh) Mayr, 1881: 32. 
Biorrhiza forticornis Dalla Torre, 1893: 60 (error escritura).
Xanthoteras quercusforticornis (Walsh, 1864) Weld, 1951: 625.
Trigonaspis quercusforticorne (Walsh) Melika y Abrahamson, 2002: 181

Existe Biorhiza Westwood, 1840 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) en México?