Philonix fulvicollis Fitch, 1859(1858), sexual generation

Material examined: One sexual female and one male labelled as “CANADA: Alberta, Edmonton, 3761-20 Street, 53.47371°N, 113.37202°W, GPS±10m, reared 1.vi.2008 ex bud galls on Quercus macrocarpa, S. Digweed, det. Philonix fulvicollis Fitch, sexual generation female, S. Digweed 2008”

Gall. The sexual generation galls (Fig. 204) occur singly in terminal buds of twigs of Q. macrocarpa. The gall is a relatively robust, seed-like, sub-ovoid cell approximately 2 mm long, dark brown when mature with longitudinal striations. Occupies the entire bud when mature, causing stunting or suppression of shoots and leaves produced from the bud.

Biology. Asexual generation galls (Fig. 203) in Kinsey’s (1936) “fulvicollis” complex have been recorded on leaves of Q. alba, Q. bicolor, Q. chapmanii, Q. gambelii, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. michauxii, Q. muehlenbergii, and Q. stellata, (Kinsey 1930, 1936; Burks 1979). Asexual generation females only begin to emerge from galls in the autumn of the year following the year of gall formation (Kinsey 1930), and we recorded females emerging up to four years after the year of gall formation. Adult females of the asexual generation (from galls collected in Manitoba but reared in Edmonton) emerged during the second half of October and early November. Sexual generation galls matured in May in Edmonton, and adults emerged 1–3 June 2008. Galls of the asexual generation appeared on leaves in Edmonton in July.

Distribution. USA: New York, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas (Burks 1979); Canada: Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick.

Comments. Kinsey (1930) transferred Dryophanta pallipes Bassett, 1900 to Philonix and proposed it as the sexual generation of P. fulvicollis, although no justification for this synonymy was provided. Weld (1959) wrote that P. pallipes might be well a synonym of Acraspis gemula. Melika & Abrahamson (2002) compared the three specimens of P. pallipes (from Beutenmueller collection, USNM, Washington, DC) with the paratypes of the sexual generation of A. gemula and found no differences, thus Philonix pallipes was synonymized with A. gemula.

- James Nicholls, George Melika, Scott Digweed, Graham Stone: (2022) Pairing of sexual and asexual generations of Nearctic oak gallwasps, with new synonyms and new species names (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini)^©