Druon pattoni (agamic)

Druon ignotum (agamic)

Melikaiella papula (sexgen)

Atrusca bella (agamic)

Neuroterus vesicula (sexgen)

Acraspis gemula (sexgen)

Neuroterus minutus (sexgen)

Neuroterus affinis (sexgen)

Disholcaspis q-margarettae-bullet-gall (agamic)

Neuroterus quercusbatatus (sexgen) (q-bicolor)

Neuroterus quercusbatatus (agamic) (q-bicolor)

Andricus chinquapin (sexgen)

Trigonaspis polita (agamic)

Disholcaspis cinerosa (agamic)

Melikaiella corrugis (agamic)

Galls, clusters of larval cells along the midvein of the leaves of Quercus obtusiloba [stellata], on the under side, and standing perpendicular to its surface. The cells are completely hidden in a short, dense brownish wool. The largest clusters often extend along the midvein more than half the length of the leaf. They are found on young trees, and usually on the leaves near the top of the stronger growing shoots. The insects live over winter in the galls. My specimens gathered in October were kept in a warm room and the insects came out in the February following. The galls resemble in their woolly covering those of C. flocci [Andricus quercusflocci] of Walsh, but the latter are round and the woolly hairs are longer, and the species is only found on Quercus alba.

Cynips ignota, n. sp.

Small oval cells, found singly or in small clusters of from two to eight together on the under side of the leaves of Q. bicolor. They are sessile on the midrib and principal veins, and usually lie in a position nearly horizontal to the surface of the leaf They are at first covered with short woolly hairs, but when ripe become more or less denuded. The naked surface when examined with a microscope shows numerous minute papillae, and between these a fine and regular reticulation. They are .10 of an inch in length and . 05 in diameter, and might easily be mistaken for the cocoons of some species of Microgaster. 

About fifteen years ago I found a few of these galls on the fallen leaves of a large oak and also on a small tree a few rods distant. The next year the greater part of the leaves on the large tree were covered with galls, a hundred or more being sometimes found on a single leaf I gathered a large quantity after the leaves fell, and the flies came out the next spring. I have examined this tree every year since and have never found any of these galls, nor have I ever seen them on other trees. 

There are some specimens of this species in the Museum at Cambridge, which Dr. Hagen informs me were found on oaks in the University grounds. I examined some oaks of the same species in the borders of the Botanical Garden at Cambridge last fall, and found several species of galls, but none of these. Can it be that the species has disappeared entirely?

C. papula, n. sp.

Clusters of small papillose or cone-like galls on the upper side of the leaves of Q. rubra and Q tinctoria, projecting unequally and usually so crowded as to form a confluent mass of pustule-like elevations. They are very hard, though only transformed portions of the blade of the leaf. On the under side of the leaf they appear simply as a scar, projecting little if at all. They bear a slight resemblance to the galls of C futilis, but this species is rarely confluent and never beyond two or three galls, while C papula is quite often found in clusters of forty or fifty, or even a hundred. C papula is monothalamous, while C futilis has, usually, from three to five larvae in each gall.

Cynips bella, n. sp.

These belong to the class known as oak-apples. They are attached by a minute sessile point to the under side of the leaves of an oak found in Arizona--often near the margin of the leaf, but more commonly on or near the mid-vein. They are perfectly round, and those that have escaped the attack of parasites are quite uniform in size, measuring from 3/4 to 7/8 of an inch in diameter. Those stung by parasites are generally much smaller, and this species is so subject to their attacks that more than three fourths are thus affected. The galls (when dry) are of various shades of brown, mostly smooth but not polished; a few specimens have a decidedly russet color and a rough surface. The shell very thin and brittle. Each gall contains a single larval cell which is kept in a central position by fine, silky, radiating fibers, that reach from it to the outside covering. Besides these fibres, there are others that are attached to the inner surface of the shell, but which are not attached to the larval cell. They are much finer than the others and resemble coarse wool. Except that these galls are smaller, and the internal structure more delicate, and the surface less smooth and polished, they might easily be taken for those found on Quercus rubra--C inanis.

Cynips vesicula, n. sp.

Gall a small, smooth, reddish brown vesicle developed from the center of the buds of Quercus alba, surrounded at the base by the bud-scales. The color is sometimes a pale greenish brown. The walls of the gall are thin and the larva free, that is, having no larval cell. These galls are partially developed in the preceding autumn, and mature so rapidly in the spring that the insects emerge about the time the leaves of the oak begin to expand. 

Female appears early in April.

Cynips gemula, n. sp.

This species is a recent discovery of mine, having escaped detection on account of its early appearance and minute size. The gall is found in the centre of both the flowering and leaf buds of Q prinoides. It is fully developed when the sterile flowers of this species of oak are in bloom. Only one gall is found in a single bud. It is exactly like an ordinary acorn in shape, having a truncate base and a cone-like extremity with a sharp point at the apex. It is a dull blackish color, and only .1 of an inch in length and 0.05 in diameter. It contains but one larva. When the gall happens to be in a leaf bud it is often found at the summit of a young branch one or two inches long, so rapid is the growth of the tree at this season. In the flower buds it is often nearly hidden in the surrounding bud scales. The insects appear in both sexes about the middle of May. 

Cynips minuta, n. sp.

As soon as the leaves of Quercus alba begin to expand in the spring, a few buds are occasionally seen that develop into a cluster of greatly enlarged petioles without a leaf blade, or at most only a very rudimentary one. They are three or four times the size of those of a full grown leaf, and each contains a number of larvae of the small gall insect which I have named C minuta. The larvae mature very rapidly and the imagos leave the gall about the time that the leaves are full grown. Occasionally an embryo leaf seems to have escaped the sting of the mother insect, and a fully developed leaf appears among the galls, but such instances are not common. The galls are pubescent and usually of a pinkish color. The insects are of both sexes.

Cynips affinis n. sp.

Monothalamous, round, thin-walled galls in the buds of Quercus prinoides, usually partly hidden in the scales of the bud, but in some instances standing out round and free like a little blister on the twig, in size only large enough to hold the larva within, and in color dark brown and grayish spots, or wholly brown. These galls are half-grown in the autumn and develop so rapidly in the spring that the insects come out just as the leaves begin to expand.

I should have been disposed to consider this species a variety of C vesicula, which, both in gall and in insect, it closely resembles, had not late discoveries shown that dimorphic species often in one generation closely resemble each other and in the next develop characters that fully establish their non-identity.

Cynips rugosa

Round, hard galls, sessile, on the branches of Quercus prinoides. Size from 1/2 to 1/4 of an inch in diameter. They are attached to the branch by a small point. The surface when green is smooth and often quite red on the side exposed to the sun. When fully ripe they have a shrunken and shrivelled surface and the color varies from an ashen hue to a dull brown. The free larval cell is surrounded by a yellowish brown cellular mass, too dense to be called spongy, which fills the entire gall. This species has been known to me for many years, but until lately I have considered it a variety of C. globulus Harris, but a careful study convinces me that it is a distinct species. C. globulus is only on the white oak and rarely more than one or two galls in a place, and has even when dry a smooth surface, while C. rugosa is often found in clusters of four or five and even more, so closely compressed that the galls are of an angular or cuneate form. The flies are all females and they mature and leave the galls late in the fall, at least I have never been able to find them in the galls in winter.

Cynips noxiosa, n. sp.

[Cynips noxiosa (Neuroterus quercusbatatus) agamic galls] are invariably preceded by a vernal crop, which affects the leaves only, and which may be described as follows: Gall, an enormous development of the mid-vein of the leaf, often to the extent of an inch in diameter and an inch and a half in length. Green, smooth, but irregular in shape, and succulent and a little harder than a green grape. The blade of the leaf dwarfed and curled, and after the galls mature drying up. In some years these galls are so abundant on certain trees as to affect nearly all the vernal leaves, but a later crop hides the blighted appearance they produce. They are filled with larval cells, from which are produced vast numbers of male and female gall flies, about the 20th of June. Long observation has satisfied me that this is the bisexual generation of C noxiosa. 

Cynips noxiosa, n. sp.

Galls: Large, woody, polythalamous, terminal or subterminal swellings on the twigs of Q. bicolor, varying greatly in size and form, but usually tuber-like and three or four times as long as thick. They larger specimens in my collection are nearly an inch in diameter and four inches long, and contain a large number of insects. The smallest are almost imperceptible swellings, and have often but a single insect. These galls develop in the summer, and the insects, which are all females, live in the galls over winter, coming out before the leaves appear in the spring. They resemble, both gall and gall-fly, C batata B, and I for a long time, considered them a variety of that species. 

Cynips capsula, n. sp.

 Galls: Monothalamous, on slender pedicels on the margins of the leaves of Quercus bicolor, rarely more than one on a leaf. The pedicels are from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long. The galls are three- eighths long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter, oval and resemble very closely the capsules of certain mosses. Surface rough, and with the pedicel finely pilose, or rather, pubescent. The pedicel is usually, but not invariably, the extension of a lateral leaf vein. The whole is of the color of the under side of the leaves of this species of oak. Most of the leaves which bear galls are fully developed, but a part are more or less imperfect and occasionally a gall is found on what is but the merest rudiment of a leaf. 

The galls appear with the leaves and the insects come out early in June. This little gall is a true larval cell and its thin walls offer slight obstacle to the attacks of parasites. 

The gall flies are of both sexes. 

Cynips polita, n. sp. 

Galls round, monothalamous, found abundantly in midsummer on both surfaces of the leaves of Quercus obtusiloba [stellata], at or near the summit of young and thrifty shoots, from one to fifteen or twenty on a single leaf. They are from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and are when grown in the shade of a paler green than the leaf, but when exposed to the sun are red or brown. They are attached so slightly to the mid- vein and its branches that their removal leaves little if any trace. The shell is when dry extremely thin and brittle, and the single round larval cell is kept in a central position by fine radiating and branching fibres that extend to the outside shell. These galls resemble, except in their mode of attachment to the leaf, those of C. singularis B., but the insects differ considerably. They are also somewhat like those of C. inanis Harris, but are many times smaller. The insects are fully mature in October, but remain in the galls over winter. I received my specimens of this species from Mr. E. Potts, of Philadelphia, and from Mr. Thomas Annadown, of Glassboro, N. J., and Mr. P. H. Uhler informs me that they are very abundant in southern New Jersey and in some parts of Maryland. The shining and finely polished thorax and abdomen suggest the specific name given to the insect.

C. cinerosa, n. sp.
"Globular, monothalamous galls, from three-fourths to one inch in diameter, the surface in recent specimens covered with a mealy grayish powder, which disappears when the galls have been long exposed to the weather; internally of a dense cellular structure, much like the galls of C. q. globulus; the rather large, centrally placed larval cell nearly or quite free." 

Cynips corrugis, n. sp.

This species is founded on a single specimen which I took from the claws of a small spider that had evidently just killed it. The spider was in a cluster of the sterile flowers of Quercus prinoides. The capture was made on the 11th of May. This species is remarkable for the almost diaphanous wing veins, the pedicellate abdomen, and the coarsely corrugated sculpturing of the thorax. It is a female, and may have been in the act of ovipositing in the young acorns or the buds of this oak when killed by the spider. 

New Cynipidae (1881)