Alfred Charles Kinsey

“ In another paper, on the phylogeny of the Cynipidæ, I am discussing this question in more detail and offering data which may be used to draw lines for natural genera. I hope to be able in the near future to revise the genera for the family. Until that time, it is surely wise not to maintain, in the description of new species, the several “genera” known as Cynips, Dryophanta, Callirhytis, Andricus, Biorhiza, Philonix, et al., species of which groups might all be described under the designation of "Andricus." ”

“ Abdomen: yellowish to brownish rufous, smooth and shining, as deep as long; second segment tongue-shaped, extending dorsally almost to the tip of the abdomen; hairy over the whole of the sides of the second segment, with a large tuft of long hairs at the tip of hypopygium. Legs: yellowish rufous, slightly lighter than the rest of the body; tips of the tarsi dark brown, tarsal claws toothed. Wings: veins brown, heavy; first portion of the cubitus, a cloud on the first-abscissa of the radius, and two distinct, clouded patches in the apical cell yellowish; areolet large, quite narrow and elongate ”

“ The general shape of this gall is very different from that of most of the species of Disholcaspis, but the location and character of the larval cell is typical for that genus. The insect is a true Disholcaspis.
Beside the two cotype adults from normal galls, I cut from a very small cotype gall a female which is in all respects like the cotypes but that it is generally darker and is very remarkably smaller in size, being only 1.7 mm. ”

“ It is very likely that there are, still in existence today, many distinct species of Cynipidæ of primitive relationships and not yet discovered because of their hidden locations in plants. It promises to prove very profitable if we search widely-for these wasps among herbaceous plants which have their dead stems persisting throughout the winter, especially pithy stems of Composites of many genera. Though Lactuca has proved the most heavily infested thus far, it is very likely that other plants are also thus attacked. ”

“ Cotypes.—Two females and several clusters containing over fifty gall cotypes, in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology and in the author's collection, and gall cotypes in The American Museum of Natural History. I cut the adults from the galls which were collected by F. G. Schaupp in 1885. The gall is the most curiously complicated structure I have seen among cynipid productions. It is possible that it is of quite a different form when young and fresh. ”

“ Aulacidea annulata, new species
Plate XX, Figures 3 to 5
Female.—Antennæ golden brown, the second joint almost black; abdomen bright red with two black bands dorsally at the base; areolet small; first abscissa of the radius slightly angulate; length 3.5 mm. Head: black, the mandibles rufopiceous, their tips black; coarsely aciculated, the aciculations radiating somewhat from the mouth; face with a prominent, broad median elevation; entire face covered with grayish hairs. ”

“ Averaging about 70 mm. long by 18 mm. in greatest diameter. Under the bark the plant tissue is twisted, resembling the trunk of a wind-beaten tree. Many leaf petioles or stems of flower clusters are grouped at the summit of the gall, their bases involved in the swelling. Internally the galls are filled with pith, scattered through which are many larval cells, each oval, averaging 3.5 × 2.5 mm. The cells are merely cavities in the pith, without a separable or even distinct tissue to form them (the cells are often lined with the cast pupal skins of the insects) . ”

“ Thorax: reddish brown, irregularly and slightly darker on a median line and on the sides, finely and regularly shagreened, with a whitish pubescence which is densest on the pronotum and the sides, parapsidal grooves well defined, extending to the pronotum, somewhat wider and converging toward the scutellum; no traces of anterior parallel lines or of a median groove; scutellum rugose, the foveæ shallow, broad, and separated by a very fine ridge. Abdomen: bright reddish brown, very finely shagreened, largely covered with fine striations and pubescent on the sides at the base ”

“ Internally the gall is composed of a dense, somewhat granular tissue which becomes more compact-woody close to the margin and immediately around the larval cells. The gall is quite too hard to cut through with a knife. The larvel cells are about 3 mm. in diameter, but elongate, and are closely surrounded by the woody tissue; they are scattered quite irregularly throughout the gall. Surrounding the young twigs of Quercus sp. ”

“ Each gall is monothalamous, the larval cell occupying most of the basal part of the gall, the cell distinct from but tightly enclosed in the surrounding tissue. On the twigs of a variety of Quercus virginiana. ”

“ Thorax: mesonotum bright reddish brown, black on and between the anterior parallel lines and on and about the lateral grooves, dark brown in the parapsidal grooves; regularly punctate and dense with a long pubescence; parapsidal grooves wide, deep, and convergent at the scutellum, narrowing and disappearing half-way to the pronotum; anterior parallel lines smooth and extending half-way to the scutellum ”

“ Head: bright reddish brown, darker between the bases of the antennæ and toward the mouth-parts, slightly and finely rugose, with long hairs which are much less dense on the front. Antennæ darker brown, 13-jointed, pubescent. ”