Cynips (dugèsi) catena, new species
agamic form

GALL.-Similar to all galls of the C. dugèsi and C. bella complexes. Mature galls spherical, yellow-tan to rosy-tan, flushed rose when younger, touched with darker purple rose in age, rather well peppered with fine, purplish marks; more or less dull; up to 17. mm., averaging near 14. mm. in diameter.

HOST.-Quercus grisea, the evergreen white oak of the area.

RANGE.-Texas: Alpine, 10 E. Possibly restricted to the single, low mountain range east of Alpine. Figure 18.

LIFE HISTORY..—Galls: nearly mature October 13. Adults: December 6, 14. January 9, 15. Most of the emergence in the first half of December.

It is a great surprise to find this distinct species within 14 miles of the type locality for C. pupoides. The types of pupoides were collected seventeen years ago in the brush-covered hills west of the town of Alpine. They are matched by material collected that year from Fort Davis and, within the last year, from the Chisos Mountain Park. The extreme localities for pupoides are fully 100 miles apart. The stands of oak in that area are anything but continuous, and in places they may be as much as 20 or 30 miles apart. The oak-free stretch east of the town of Alpine is hardly 8 miles wide, but it isolates the so-called Del Norte Mountains from which we have this perfectly distinct insect, catena.

While catena shows itself some relative of pupoides, it, as a matter of fact, is closer to the Central Texan C. cava than it is to the brevipennata-pupoides stock. The phylogenetic map will show how the brevipennata and cava stocks have come in from the west and east, respectively, to put their end products within 8miles of each other on either side of Alpine. Cateba differs from cava most obviously in its strictly spherical gall—the galls of cava being bulboid. The insect of cateba is generally darker rufous in color and has heavier wing veins.

Atrusca catena (Kinsey, 1936)

Figs 155–168

Synonymy
Cynips (dugesi) catena Kinsey 1936: 102, female, gall.
Atrusca catena (Kinsey): Weld 1951: 637.

Types examined

HOLOTYPE female Cynips catena (dugesi) “Alpine, Tex. 10E. Gall 10.13.35, 15 fms. 12.14.35”, “Q. grisea, Kinsey coll.”, red “Cynips catena, Holo- Paratype”, deposited in AMNH, examined by GM. Three PARATYPE females “Alpine, Tex. 10E, gall 10.13.35, 6 females 12.6.35”, “Q. grisea Kinsey coll.”, red label “Cynips catena Paratype”, deposited in the general collection in AMNH, NYC, examined by GM.

Gall (Fig. 168)

Similar to all galls of the “Cynips dugesi” and “Cynips bella” complexes. Mature galls are spherical, yellow-tan to rosy-tan, flushed rose when younger, touched with darker purple rose in age, with fine purplish marks, more or less dull, up to 17 mm in diameter, average 14 mm in diameter.

Biology

The asexual generation is only known. Leaf galls on Q. grisea. Galls mature in October; adults emerge in December – January next year.

Distribution

USA: Texas.