Cynips villosa

Cynips villosa var villosa

 Philonix villosa

 Philonix villosus

  Acraspis villosus

Cynips apache

Acraspis villosa var apache

Cynips calvescens

Acraspis villosa var calvescens

Cynips consocians

Acraspis villosa var consocians

Cynips expositor

Acraspis villosa var expositor

Cynipidae

Acraspis

Quercus alba

Alabama

Arkansas

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Ontario

Quebec

Quercus arizonica

Arizona

New Mexico

Quercus gambelii

Colorado

Nevada

South Dakota

Utah

Wyoming

Quercus grisea

Quercus macrocarpa

Montana

North Dakota

Alberta

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Saskatchewan

Quercus oblongifolia

Cynipid galls of the eastern United States

The Gall Wasp Genus Cynips

Acraspis villosa (agamic)

[Cynips villosa variety villosa](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53516882#page/359/mode/1up)
agamic form

Acraspis villosus
Acraspis villosa
Philonix villosus
Philonix villosa

GALL. — Mature gall straw-yellow, staining browner in color; up to 13.0 mm. in diameter, the spines up to 2.0 mm. in length, rather flexuous, slender; the whole gall appearing as a dense mass of coarse and tangled hairs; on the leaves of Quercus macrocarpa. 

RANGE. — New York: Medina (acc. Weld 1926). Seneca Lake (Dudley in Cornell Univ., acc. Weld 1926). Ithaca (acc. Weld 1928). Michigan: Agricultural College (acc. Gillette 1889). Indiana: Crawfordsville (E. C. Stout in Kinsey coll.). Rogers in Pike County (gall, Kinsey coll.). Illinois: Evanston and Winnetka (acc. Weld 1926). Pana (Kin- sey coll.). Minnesota: Minneapolis (J. S. Benner in Kinsey coll.). Iowa: Ames (types, Gillette coll.). Kansas: Manhattan (thru C. V. Riley; in U.S. Nat. Mus.). Riley County (Marlatt in U.S. Nat. Mus., Kans. Agric. Coll., and Kinsey coll.) . Probably restricted to the range of Q. macrocarpa in the more northern Middle West, from northeastern Kansas into New York State. Figure 59. 

INQUILINE . — Synergus villosus Gillette (acc. Gillette 1890). 

This is the most eastern representative and the first-known variety of the species. It is usually not a common insect and it is not well represented in our collections. Superficially the gall appears as a tangled mass of coarse hairs, but the slender tips break off on handling and expose the broader bases of the spines, leaving the gall more like the agamic Cynips gemmula in appearance. The gall of villosa is hardly distinguishable from the galls of consocians and of alaria, from southern Kansas and the southern Rockies, respectively. Villosa insects are more rufous, with shorter wings than alaria and with a more slender thorax than consocians. 

Gillette recorded these galls as appearing in the mid-summer. Weld found pupae (in galls from Medina, N. Y.) on August 24 and September 4, and cut active adults out of galls early in October and (from northern Illinois material) on November 1. On October 23 (1926) the insect had already emerged from a gall I collected in southern Indiana. Gillette’s galls collected on October 20 gave adults on October 29. My material from Minneapolis emerged on November 10, from central Indiana on November 20, and from central Illinois on December 8. The Marlatt material from Riley County, Kansas, emerged in January (one specimen is labelled September!). 

[Cynips villosa variety consocians, new variety](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53516882#page/361/mode/1up)
agamic form

GALL. — Mature gall straw-yellow, staining browner in color; up to 13.0 mm. in diameter, the spines up to 2.0 mm. in length, rather flexuous, slender; the whole gall appearing as a dense mass of coarse and tangled hairs; on the leaves of Quercus macrocarpa. 

RANGE. — Kansas : Winfield (types, R. Voris in Kinsey coll.) . Either an Ozark variety extending westward to eastern Kansas, or a Texas variety extending northward to southern Kansas; the material insufficient to allow more precise prediction. Figure 59. 

This is either the Ozark or the eastern Texas variety of the species. In addition to the type series from southeastern Kansas, I have some material without data other than the record that I collected it in 1919-20. It was therefore probably collected in the southern United States not further north than northern Texas or southern Mississippi. This suggests that consocians is an eastern Texas variety finding its northern limit in Kansas. The galls are identical with variety villosa, and the insects of consocians are very close to villosa and alaria. These three varieties would hardly be distinguished except for their distinct ranges and the fact that among these sub-apterous Cynipidae the simplification of structure has proceeded so far that one may use only a part of the characters available among long-winged insects. The type series of consocians is a fine collection large enough to insure constancy in the few characters on which the variety is established. 

Galls from the type locality were full-sized and contained very small larvae early in August (1927). By early September the larvae had grown enough to be suitable for collection for breeding. Adults emerged from these galls on November 20 and December 5 and 17 (1927).


[Cynips villosa variety apache, new variety](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53516882#page/356/mode/1up)
agamic form

GALL. — Indistinguishable from that of variety acraspiformis (q.v.), the spines stiff, straight, stout, the whole suggesting a sea urchin; on leaves of Quercus grisea and Q. arizonica. Figure 303. 

RANGE. — Arizona: Globe (types, Kinsey coll.). Fish Creek on Apache Trail (gall, Kinsey coll.). Probably confined to a limited area east of Phoenix, Arizona. Figure 59. 

The holotype female seems to be a mature adult (unfortunately laden with glue in the mounting) ; the other female is small and not fully pigmented but otherwise agreeing with the holotype. The two specimens came from different oaks. The wings of both are shorter than those of Cynips dugesi brevipennata, tho not as short as those of a Philonix. The hypopygial spine is a little smaller than in the other two varieties of the species. 

The Apache Trail country of Arizona, the region in which apache is to be found, seems to have a cynipid fauna largely distinct from that of adjacent areas both north and south of Globe and Phoenix, but I have no data on the extent of this area. 

[Cynips villosa variety calvescens, new variety](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53516882#page/358/mode/1up)
agamic form

GALL. — Mature gall straw-yellow in color, up to 14.0 mm. in diameter, the spines up to 2.5 mm. in length, rather flexuous, slender, the whole gall appearing as a mass of coarse and tangled hairs; on the leaves of Quercus utahensis [synonym of gambelii] (and related oaks?). Figures 307-308. 

RANGE. — Utah: Bountiful (types; B. and H. J. Pack in Kinsey coll.). Farmington, Santaquin, and Layton (B. and H. J. Pack in Kinsey coll.). Probably restricted to an area in more northeastern Utah. Figure 59. 

This is an apparently common insect in the mountains of northeastern Utah. Its closest relatives are alaria, which occurs in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico east of the Continental Divide, and the variety villosa , which ranges from Kansas into New York State. Calvescens is immediately distinguished by the large, naked area on the abdomen, the more eastern insects having the sides of their abdomens entirely hairy. The name calvescens (becoming bald) emphasizes the striking appearance of the new variety. This Utah insect also has a distinctly longer wing and averages shorter in body length than either of the other varieties. 

The Cynipidae of Utah, as far as I have studied them, are never the same as those of Colorado, and the present species serves to illustrate how distinct these faunas may be. We are indebted to Dr. H. J. Pack and his daughter, Bessie Pack, for all the material we have of this insect. The galls collected early in September (1927) seemed fully mature. Out- of-doors at Bloomington, Indiana, I bred 66 adults by December 5, another 76 by December 13, and another 9 at some later date (all in 1927). 

[Cynips villosa variety expositor, new variety](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53516882#page/355/mode/1up)
agamic form

GALL. — Mature galls yellow-brown in color, up to 8.5 mm., aver- aging nearer 6.0 mm. in diameter; the spines up to 4.0 mm. in length, rather flexuous, slender, the bases up to 0.4 mm. in diameter, but the spine very slender right down to this base; the whole appearing as a tangled mass of coarse hairs; on leaves of Quercus grisea and Q. arizonica. Figures 301-302, 326. 

RANGE. — Texas: Alpine (types; Q. grisea , Kinsey coll.). New Mexico: Soledad Canyon in Organ Mts. (galls, Q. arizonica; L. H. Bridewell in Kinsey coll.). Probably restricted to the desert mountain areas of West Texas and immediately adjacent areas in New Mexico. Figure 59. 

The galls collected in the Organ Mts., New Mexico, on August 23 (1927) were too young to breed. The last adults were emerging from the galls which I collected at Alpine, Texas, on December 14 (1919). 

This insect is distinct from its widespread New Mexico and Arizona relatives, altho clearly related to them, and the gall is also readily distinguishable. Here is one more instance of the fact that the West Texas and adjacent New Mexico cynipid fauna does not extend further north or west in New Mexico. 

Acraspis villosa

Quercus macrocarpa
Leaf galls, detachable
Globular, 7-8 mm, hairy, single on the under side in summer. Contains one larval cell.

[Photo caption]
On Q macrocarpa. Types emerged Oct 29 (MI). Adults were cut out on the galls Nov 1 (Chi)

Acraspis villosa Gillette, 1888, sexual generation

Synonyms: Acraspis villosus Gillette (1888: 218), females and galls. Acraspis villosa corrected spelling by Dalla Torre (1893: 64); Philonix villosus combination by Felt (1906: 713); Philonix villosa combination by Beutenmueller (1909: 249); Cynips (Acraspis) villosa var. villosa combination by Kinsey (1930: 355). 

Kinsey (1930, 1936) described the asexual generation of six additional species within his “villosa” complex: Cynips (Acraspis) apache Kinsey, 1930 from Q. grisea and Q. arizonica; Cynips (Acraspis) calvescens Kinsey, 1930 from Q. gambelii; Cynips (Acraspis) consocians Kinsey, 1930 from Q. macrocarpa; Cynips (Acraspis) erutor Kinsey, 1936 from Q. repanda; Cynips (Acraspis) expletor Kinsey, 1936 from Q. oblongifolia; and Cynips (Acraspis) expositor Kinsey, 1930 from Q. grisea. Weld (1951) and Burks (1979) treated four of these species as varieties of A. villosa; hence Acraspis villosa var. apache (Kinsey), syn. nov., Acraspis villosa var. calvescens (Kinsey), syn. nov., Acraspis villosa var. consocians (Kinsey), syn. nov., and Acraspis villosa var. expositor (Kinsey), syn. nov. are all synonyms of A. villosa. Two species known only from Mexico are valid and treated as Cynips erutor Kinsey and C. expletor Kinsey (Pujade-Villar & Ferrer-Suay 2015).

Biology. See Weld (1926) and Kinsey (1930, 1936) for the biology of the asexual generation. Asexual galls (Fig. 27) from species in Kinsey’s (1936) “villosa” complex have been recorded on leaves of Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. gambelii, Q. grisea, Q. macrocarpa and Q. oblongifolia. Adult females of the asexual generation emerged (from galls collected in Manitoba but reared in Edmonton) during the second half of October and early November. Adults of the sexual generation emerged in Edmonton from late May to early June. Galls of the asexual generation appeared on leaves in Edmonton in July. 

Distribution. USA: New York, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Utah, Arizona (Burks 1979); Canada: Manitoba

Pairing of sexual and asexual generations of Nearctic oak gallwasps, with new synonyms and new species names (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini)

Galls matching this description have occasionally been reported on hosts identified as Quercus bicolor. Because Acraspis echini is the only Acraspis gall listed by Weld on that host, they were initially identified as that species. However, this host association appears to be mistaken, leaving Q bicolor with no known Acraspis galls. Acraspis galls on Q bicolor could be a new host relationship for A villosa (perhaps on hybridized oaks?) or simply A villosa galls on misidentified Q macrocarpa trees.  

Gallformers ID Notes