Cynips hirta variety hirta, agamic form
Cynips q hirta
Cynips hirta
Biorhiza hirta
Biorrhiza hirta
Philonix hirta
Philonyx hirta
Trichoteras quercus-hirtum
Philonix pezomachoides (error)
Acraspis hirta
GALL. — Quite spheroidal, moderately large, up to 6.0 mm. in diameter; the faceted surface without projecting spines and consequently smooth in appearance; on leaves of Quercus montana (= Q. Prinus = Q. monticola of authors), Q. Michauxii, and probably related chestnut oaks.
RANGE. — Toronto (Brodie in U.S. Nat. Mus.). Massachusetts: Worcester? (gall, M. T. Thompson in Boston Soc.). Connecticut: Waterbury (types; Bassett coll.). New York: West Point (Bassett in Mus. Comp. Zook). Storm King (gall, M. D. Leonard acc. Weld 1926). Highbridge (gall, Amer. Mus. coll.). Huntington (J. C. Bridewell in U.S. Nat. Mus.). Ithaca (gall, acc. Weld 1926). New Jersey: Fort Lee (gall, acc. Beutenmiiller 1910). Richland (gall, Kinsey coll.). Pennsylvania: Washingtonville (gall, E. C. Zeliff in Kinsey coll.). D.C. (acc. Beutenmiiller 1909). Virginia: Bluemont (gall, acc. Weld 1926). Blue Ridge Mountains near Natural Bridge Station (gall, Kinsey coll.). Winchester (Kinsey coll.). North Carolina: Asheville (Ashmead in U.S. Nat. Mus.). Kentucky: Livingston (gall, Q. Michauxii, Kinsey coll.). Indiana: Nashville ( Q . Michauxii, Kinsey coll.). Michigan: Agricultural College (Gillette? in U.S. Nat. Mus.). Kansas: state (acc. Bridewell 1899). St. George (in U.S. Nat. Mus.).
Probably confined to the chestnut oaks in a more northeastern area of the United States and Canada, at least from Connecticut to Indiana, perhaps westward to Missouri. The Atlantic Coastal Plain, the more southern, and the most western records given above need further examination when the bisexual adults become known.
This is the chestnut oak variety of the species, originally described from Q. Prinus and now recorded from Q. Michauxii. Most of the Cynipidae do not make distinctions between the several species of Middle-Western chestnut oaks. Beutenmuller’s 1900 record (in Ashmead in Smith (1900:548)), and Viereck’s 1916 records of Q. ilicifolia as the host are certainly errors, while the Q. macrocarpa records should apply to variety macrescens.
Mature galls of this variety in the American Museum are dated September 11 (1904). Bassett collected galls in October, finding that the insects had begun to eat passages thru the walls of the galls on October 20, altho the first emergence occurred on November 29. Galls I collected in Virginia on October 18 (1919) showed exit holes, but whether of gall makers, inquilines, or parasites, I cannot determine. An adult gall maker was alive in a gall I collected on October 31 (in 1920) at Nashville, Indiana. I have bred adults on De- cember 20 and January 5 (1928). Bassett (1870) notes that the peculiar, acid odor characteristic of several short-winged cynipids is found in hirta.
This insect is very close to variety macrescens from which it appears to be distinguished only by the longer wings and by the large, spherical gall. From variety undulata, hirta appears to differ in having the antennae darker at base, the lateral lines absent, and the mesopleura more hairy. But altho I have examined the holotypes of all of these insects, and made direct comparisons of paratypes of the three, I am not certain that I could determine additional insect material without locality records or galls. On the other hand, the galls of the three are so distinct that, with the additional host and geographic peculiarities of each, the varieties should be maintained as distinct. The much reduced thorax and the mere stubs of wings which these forms of Acraspis show offer very few characters for taxonomic determinations. The characters given for these agamic insects by Weld (1922) in his key to Acraspis did not seem to me to separate the paratypes of the several varieties when I studied them at Washington a couple of years ago.
Cynips hirta variety undulata
agamic form
GALL. — Of moderate size, more or less ellipsoid, the faceted surface fairly smooth in appearance; on leaves of Quercus Gambelii and its varieties (NOT on Q. undulata!) .
RANGE. — Colorado: Manitou (types, Gillette coll.). New Mexico: Kingston (galls, Kinsey coll.). Probably confined to Q. Gambelii and its varieties, in a Southern Rocky Mountain area of southern Colorado and more northern New Mexico. Figure 70.
There appear to be no data on this insect beyond Gillette’s record of the type collection. His galls, collected on June 30, contained mature adults that ran about when cut out. It is difficult to understand summer maturity, in the light of the data for related varieties of the species, unless these were survivors of the previous year’s growth that had failed for some reason to emerge in the late fall or the ( winter. Gillette stated that from June 30 to November 19 none of the insects emerged, tho a number were cut out of the galls. His further statement that the galls were kept in a warm room after the last of September may offer one more explanation of the failure to obtain normal emergence.
I have a single gall from Kingston, New Mexico, which might well represent the present variety. The insect had emerged when I collected this gall on December 27 (1919). We must await insect material before we can be certain that undulata extends as far south as Kingston. West of the Rockies, in Utah, there occurs variety packorum with its distinctly blunt-spiny and spherical gall. True undulata does not occur east of Colorado.
Variety undulata, so named because of Gillette’s confusion of the names of the Rocky Mountain oaks, really occurs on Quercus Gambelii and the closely related varieties or species of oaks. Fragments of leaves with the type material confirm our interpretation of the host.
Gillette described undulata by comparing it with macrescens (= Bassett’s macrocarpae) . Beutenmuller, examining paratypes of the two in 1907, failed to find these differences and considered the names synonymous. I agree with Beutenmuller that none of the characters noted by Gillette are reasonably appreciable or constant enough among the individuals of the type series to warrant taxonomic recognition. On the other hand, Beutenmuller, perhaps because he worked with a hand lens which would not show the diagnostic characters on the much reduced thoraces of these insects, failed to ob- serve several distinctions which seem to me to be of significance. Other authors have followed Beutenmuller’s synonomy without having examined material. Weld, whose 1922 revision of Acraspis was critical as far as it went, did have types of undulata but none of macrescens for comparison.
Undulata differs from macrescens chiefly in having more distinct lateral lines, more naked and shining areas on the mesopleuron, and wings that are (Gillette’s original description to the contrary) a little longer than in macrescens. My measurements are made from camera lucida drawings of type material. The discovery of the bisexual generations of these insects may (or may not) offer further data for making dis- tinctions, but the characters now recorded seem to warrant the recognition of these varieties with distinct geographic ranges and distinct hosts.
Cynips hirta variety packorum, new variety
agamic form
GALL. — Nearly spheroidal, moderately large, up to 6.0 mm. in diameter, with the faceted surface set with very short, cone-like projections, the gall consequently rough and short-spiny in appearance; on leaves of Quercus utahensis [synonym of gambelii]. Figures 317-318.
RANGE. — Utah: Wales and Central in Sevier County (galls, Hagen in Kinsey coll.). Salt Lake City (thru C. T. Dodds, in Kinsey coll.). Payson, Bountiful (types), Centerville, Farmington, Layton, and Willard (B. and H. J. Pack in Kinsey coll,). Probably confined to an area west of the Continental Divide.
This insect is best distinguished from variety undulata and more eastern varieties of the species by its more generally black color (but more rufous legs), by its slightly longer wings, and particularly by its rougher and even spiny, spherical gall. The gall suggests a small gall of an agamic form of Cynips gemmula rather than the smooth, faceted galls of the other varieties of hirta. Undulata is probably confined to an area in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico east of the Continental Divide. The cynipid fauna of Utah is usually related to but never identical with this fauna from the eastern side of the Rockies.
How far packorum ranges in Utah is not determinable from our present insect material. Many Cynipidae in that state have more northern and more southern varieties whose ranges meet somewhere between Provo and Brigham. Most of our insect collections of packorum were made in this critical territory, but I cannot recognize two varieties in this material.
Most of our galls of this variety were gathered early in September, at which time they were still young enough to be touched with a rosy pink, but old enough to breed with fair success. Adult insects emerged (out-of-doors, at Bloomington, Indiana) on November 18 and December 10 and 20.
The type material and fine series of this variety from several other localities were collected by Dr. H. J. Pack, Entomologist of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, and his daughter Bessie Pack, for whom I am naming this insect. These collectors have sent me large series well representing the cynipid fauna of northeastern Utah, and they thus will contribute materially to our further revisions of the cynipid genera and our ultimate understanding of the distribution problems involved in that little-explored area west of the Continental Divide.
Cynips hirta variety obtrectans, new variety
agamic form
GALL. — More ellipsoid than spheroidal; up to 5.5 mm. in length; the faceted surface distinctly smooth in appearance; on leaves of Quercus macrocarpa.
RANGE. — Texas: Austin (types; Patterson coll.). Oklahoma: Pawnee. (Kinsey coll.). Kansas: Winfield and 10 miles southeast of Winfield (galls, R. Voris in Kinsey coll.). Probably confined to eastern Texas and Oklahoma, or perhaps extending due east from that area as far as the host, Q. macrocarpa, occurs. Figure 70.
This is the more southern of the burr oak varieties of hirta. The present insect is distinct enough from the more northern varieties macrescens , scelesta , and opima, to allow certain determination. I have only one immature adult from the mate- rial I collected in 1920 at Pawnee, Oklahoma, but it shows the coloration and the lengthened wings of the types from Austin, Texas, and I take it that the range of the variety is largely east and northeast from Austin. Dr. Ralph Voris has collected young but full-sized galls, of this species but doubtfully of this variety, in southeastern Kansas as early as June 6, 1927. At that time the larvae were still microscopic in size. Dr. Patterson collected the type galls in the fall of 1921, cutting two mature (one not fully pigmented) and live adults from the galls on October 26 of the same year.
Cynips hirta variety opima, new variety
agamic form
GALL. — Nearly spheroidal, slightly ellipsoid; up to 3.5 mm. in diameter; the surface fairly smooth; on leaves of Quercus macrocarpa.
RANGE. — Michigan: Wayland. Illinois: Seneca (types, Kinsey coll.). Charleston and Green Valley in Tazewell County (Kinsey coll.). Indiana: Mongo, Delphi, Romney, Morocco, Rogers in Pike County, and Aurora (Kinsey coll.). Centering in more southern Indiana, Illinois, and possibly south- westward into the Ozarks; found northward into Michigan only within populations of the hybrid variety macrescens. Figure 71.
This is the more southern variety of hirta in the northern Middle West, occurring in Indiana and Illinois where we might expect an Ozark variety, altho we do not have collections of the species from localities within the Ozarks proper. This appears to be the form which, hybridizing with the northern scelesta, gave rise to the hybrid variety macrescens, and segre- gates of opima consequently occur on occasion as far north as macrescens extends. Quite different are the nearly pure populations of opima in Illinois and southern Indiana. Both insects and galls of typical opima are about as distinct from scelesta as anything in the present species ; but the occurrence of the hybrid macrescens in between provides such a gradation from opima to scelesta that determinations of anything less than large series of these insects cannot be more than approximations to natural interpretations.
Our emergence records for this insect are November 4, 16, 19, and 20, and December 1, 4, 8, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, and 28.
Cynips hirta variety scelesta, new variety
agamic form
GALL. — Always elongate ellipsoid; up to 4.0 mm. in length; the faceted surface quite smooth in appearance; on leaves of Quercus macrocarpa.
RANGE. — Michigan: Wayland (types, Kinsey coll.) Big Rapids and Tekonshah (Kinsey coll.). Indiana: Morocco, Romney, Delphi, and Mongo (Kinsey coll.). Illinois: Seneca (Kinsey coll.). Centering on the very northern rim of the range of Q. macrocarpa, probably from New York to Minnesota. Remnants of the species scattered southward (by the Pleistocene glaciation) thruout Indiana and Illinois. Figure 72.
This is the sub-Canadian variety of the species; to be expected everywhere on the most northern rim of the range of Quercus macrocarpa. The extreme form of the insect is distinguished more readily than any of the other eastern varieties of hirta. On the other hand, the hybrid of scelesta and opiwu is the widespread macrescens, and thruout more southern Michigan every transition occurs between scelesta and ma- crescens, while further south scelesta appears here and there as a segregate in the hybrid population. Since the host, Q. macrocarpa, does not extend into the true Canadian zone, it is possible that a pure population of scelesta has not been maintained north of the area of hybridization. Our emergence dates for this insect are November 20 and December 1, 4, 8, 12, 15, and 22.
Cynips hirta variety macrescens, new name
agamic form
GALL. — Usually elongate ellipsoid; up to 4.0 mm. in length; the faceted surface hardly with projecting tips and consequently fairly smooth in appearance; on leaves of Quercus macrocarpa. Figures 316, 329.
RANGE. — Quebec: Dows Lake (gall, Rowland in Gray Herb.). Ontario: province (acc. Jarvis 1907). Toronto (Brodie in U.S. Nat. Mus.). New York: Medina (acc. Weld 1926). St. Lawrence County (acc. Bassett 1890). Manorville (?) and Farmingdale (?) (acc. Weld 1928) . Ohio: Rockport (types; Bassett). Indiana: Delphi, Steubenville, Mongo, Romney, Morocco, Aurora, Clinton, and Rogers in Pike County (Kinsey coll.). Auburn (gall, Kin- sey coll.). Roachdale (gall, G. Blaydes in Kinsey coll.). Michigan: Lansing (acc. Gillette). Tekonsha, Wayland, Owosso, and Three Rivers (Kinsey coll.). Illinois: Evanston, Winnetka, Libertyville, Glen Ellyn, and Moline (acc. Weld 1926). Fountaindale (acc. Weld 1926; also gall, Bebb in Gray Herb.). Charleston, Green Valley in Tazewell County, and Seneca (Kinsey coll.). Minnesota: Hastings Road (gall, Ruggles acc. Felt 1921). Min- neapolis (galls, J. S. Benner in Kinsey coll.). Iowa: Ames (Gillette in 111. Lab. and U.S. Nat. Mus.). “Keo- sauqua” (?) (gall, MacDonald in Gray Herb.). Corinth (gall, C. Bar- racks acc. Weld 1926). Kansas: Cedar Point and Holton (galls, acc. Weld 1926). Probably confined to a more northern range of the host, Q. macro- carpa, from Quebec to Minnesota and Kansas. Replaced on the extreme northern limits of the range of the host by variety scelesta. The more western records need re-determination; the published Colorado records apply to variety undulata. Figure 70.
This is the common, nearly spineless, Acraspis gall on the burr oak in the more northern Middle West, but not on the very northern rim of the range of Q. macrocarpa. It is un- fortunate that Bassett’s well-known name, macrocarpae , for this insect is already pre-occupied in Cynips (as indicated in the synonomy above), and that it is necessary to introduce the new name macrescens for this insect.
Macrescens shows the considerable variation which is evident in northern Middle- Western varieties of Cynips fulvicollis and C. pezomachoides. Toward the north macrescens aver- ages smaller and darker, finally giving way in north-central Michigan to the variety scelesta. In southern Indiana and Illinois, and thru parts of more northern Illinois macrescens averages larger and more robust and gives way to purer popu- lations of variety opima. These three insects are not differ- entiated by many characters, probably because of the great simplicity of structure of all the sub-apterous Cynipidae; but their distinction is important because of the light it throws on the origin of a species by the hybridization of more northern and more southern varieties which were brought together during the glacial invasions of the Pleistocene. Thruout the range of macrescens individuals may be found with the characters of pure scelesta or opima, but the mass of the population of macrescens represents an intermediate blending of the parental characters. Variable and poorly fused as this aggregate may be, I feel we should continue to recognize it as a taxonomic unit deserving a name for convenience of reference.
The galls of scelesta are ellipsoidal, those of opima more nearly (but not quite) spheroidal. In the galls of macrescens the scelesta influence usually dominates, but there is some variation in this gall character.
Felt recorded young galls of this variety (misdetermined as hirta) from Minnesota as early as July 23. Weld found pupae in galls from northern Illinois early in September. Galls which I collected at Delphi in northern Indiana on September 21 (1926) were just beginning to drop to the ground. Many of them at that time showed exit holes which indicated the emergence of parasites. The cynipids were still larvae in the galls on that date. Weld cut living adults from his Illinois material as early as the last week of September. Normal emergence dates are recorded as follows: October 10 (acc. Gillette 1889) ; November 4 and 10 (Kinsey in 1926) ; November 9 to 14 (Brodie in U.S. Nat. Mus. ; in 1885 and 1893) ; November 14 (acc. Weld 1926) ; November 15 to 30 (Brodie in U.S. Nat. Mus.; in 1892); November 4, 16, 19, 20, and December 1, 4, 8, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22, and 28 (Kinsey 1926 to 1928). While the major part of the large series of material I have bred emerged in the first half of November, it will be seen that many of the insects emerged after December 1 and even as late as December 28. All of the adults had previously emerged from galls collected at Roachdale, Indiana, on December 26 (in 1922) . Some of the many parasites that are to be found in these galls emerge before the gall makers in the fall, but the majority of the parasites and inquilines do not mature until the following May or June.
