Page:Life histories of American Cynipidæ.pdf/21

 , XXIV, p. 337. , 1904, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XX, p. 26; 1910, idem, XXVIII, p. 126, Pl. xii, figs. 1–2., 1910, Ins. N. J., p. 599. , 1915, Cat. Amer. Ins. Galls, pp. 5, 13, 41. , 1916, Hymen. Conn., p. 389. , 1918, N. Y. State Mus. Bull., CC, p. 56, fig. 53, 1–2.

—Massachusetts (Thompson). Rhode Island: Providence (Thompson). Connecticut (Bassett). New York (Beutenmüller). New Jersey (Beutenmüller). Pennsylvania (Beutenmüller).

Neuroterus tectus form tectus (Bassett) Plate XXX, Figures 20 to 22

—Mostly piceous black, antennæ 13-jointed, wing-veins brownish, areolet only moderately large; length about 1.2 mm. piceous or piceous black, mouth-parts reddish brown, microscopically coriaceous; a distinct median elevation on the face; antennae 13-jointed, dark brown, lighter basally. piceous or piceous black, shining; mesonotum almost entirely smooth, the parapsidal and other grooves lacking, scutellum rounded, the groove at the base broad and deeply arcuate; pronotum and mesopleuræ very microscopically coriaceous. Blackish, piceous basally, shining, triangular in outline. brownish, straw-brown at the joints. narrow, one-third again as long as the whole body; veins straw-brown, distinct but not heavy; areolet moderately large or not large; cubitus continuous to the basal vein which it meets slightly below the midpoint; radial area long and narrow, open, the first abscissa of the radius somewhat angulate high on the vein. 1.2–1.5 mm.

.—Similar to the female, but with the antennæ lighter colored, the third joint slightly curved, the abdomen petiolate.

[Redescribed from Thompson material bred in successive generations, and from Bassett cotypes.]

—Small swellings (Figs. 20 to 22) of the stems of flower clusters, of petioles, or of young stems of oak. Each swelling consists of closely-packed clusters of thin-walled, oval larval cells, each measuring about .7×1.2 mm. with a thin covering of distorted bark, there being little other hypertrophied tissue present. Usually covered with gray pubescence. On Quercus prinoides (and Q. alba?).

—Cotype females, males, and galls in The American Museum of Natural History, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

These galls are very inconspicuous productions, hardly to be observed until the tiny exit holes made by the insects may be found in the stems of the flower clusters. The insects emerge late in May and early in June, after only a month spent in the galls. Bassett found the adults mostly emerged by June 10.

Neuroterus tectus form abundans, new name

—Closely resembles the female of the bisexual generation, but has the abdomen darker in color and decidedly larger and more oval rather than triangular. 1.2–1.5 mm.

.—Not certainly identified. Most likely swellings very similar to the galls of the bisexual generation, but on the midvein of the young leaves, somewhat distorting the whole leaf.