Biorhiza mellea n. sp.

Quercus obtusiloba [stellata]

Galls — Small, brownish yellow, globular galls, occurring separately or in clusters of three or more together, on the upper surface of the leaf, attached by a slender point and easily detached. Externally they are covered with minute warty, pubescent dots; internally they are fleshy, but when fully matured are of a more or less cellular consistency and shrivel in drying. Diameter .10 to .15 inch. They fall to the ground and mature in the sand and fallen debris.

Described from eight specimens reared in February. Occurs on Q. parvifolia [chapmanii?]

Sphaeroteras melleum

Quercus chapmani, stellata
Leaf galls, detachable
"Small, brownish yellow, globular, single or cluster of three or more, on upper side, easily detached, fleshy, shrivel in drying, 2.5-3.8 mm in dia." Entered from lit.

[Photo caption (no photo)]
Cluster of one to three on upper surface of leaf of Q chapmani, 2.5-3.8 mm in dia; they shrivel in drying. "Reared in Feb." Not recognized in the field.

[Undescribed species presumed to be synonymous based on Weld's statement and similarity of the galls]

Quercus chapmani
Leaf galls, detachable
Similar to Sphaeroteras carolina above, but smoother, pink, single, saddled on midrib on the basal third of leaf on under side. This may be melleum.

[Photo caption (no photo)]
Similar to Sphaeroteras carolina but smoother, pink, up to 10 mm in dia, saddled on a vein of Q chapmani on basal third of leaf on under side may be Sphaeroteras melleum.

Sphaerotheras melleum (Ashmead) Ashmead comb. rev.

[Reestablishes the genus Sphaeroteras and moves S mellea (the type species) back from Biorhiza]

Biorhiza mellea Ashmead, 1887: 138; Mayr, 1902: 289; Melika y Abrahamson, 2002: 167.
Biorhiza mellea (Ashmead) Ashmead, 1897a: 67. (error escritura)
Sphaerotheras melleum (Ashmead) Ashmead (1897a: 67); Weld, 1951: 642.
Cynips (Acraspis) mellea (Ashmead) Kinsey, 1930: 308

Cynips mellea
agamic forms

GALL. — A small, globular, thick-walled leaf gall with the larval cell filling most of the interior. Monothalamous ; strictly spherical when fresh and sometimes when dried after maturity, often shrinking irregularly when dried; the gall sometimes drawn out at the point of attachment; the surface of the gall roughly, irregularly shagreened, densely covered with long, white or brown hairs when young (at least in some varieties), the hairs deciduous, leaving a stellate pubescence on older galls; the galls of all varieties finally naked (altho still appearing puberulent because of the shagreened surface; the naked galls whitish, flesh pink or pinkish brown in color; up to 7.0 mm., dried galls averaging about 4.0 mm. in diameter. The thin outer shell re-enforced with a more or less thin, solid mass of crystalline structure; the larval cell highly variable in size, often occupying most of the gall, the wall of the cell hardly differentiated from the solid, crystalline material. Attached to the veins, singly or in small clusters, on the upper or (less often) the under surfaces of leaves of white oaks of all groups.

[Kinsey describes many varieties of this gall; rydbergiana, unica, and carolina are listed separately, following other literature. See paper for details on the others.]

Cynips mellea variety mellea
agamic form

Biorhiza mellea
Biorrhiza mellea
Sphaeroteras mellea
Diplolepis carolina err det Weld
Diplolepis unica err det Weld
Cynips mellea var C Kinsey

GALL. — Typical for the species, averaging small; on the leaves, often in small clusters, on Quercus stellata and its varieties, probably including the related Q. Chapmani and Q. Margaretta.

RANGE. — Florida: Jacksonville (Ashmead; types). Greencove Springs, Ocala, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and Daytona (galls, acc. Weld 1926). Probably restricted to Q. stellata and its varieties in the South- east, perhaps to Florida and adjacent parts of Georgia. Figure 51.

We have no insects of this variety except those of Ashmead’s type collection. These adults were bred in February. His host record, Q. parvifolia , is ordinarily taken to mean Q. Chap- man i, an oak so closely related to Q. stellata that there is, as far as I know, no distinction in the cynipid faunas of the two.

The galls of variety mellea cannot be separated from those of Carolina. All of the insects thus far bred from Coastal Plain material, from the Carolinas and north, have proved to be the long-winged, rufous and black variety Carolina , and Beutenmuller’s record of mellea in New Jersey, apparently based on galls alone, is probably a mis-determination. His published figures of mellea galls appear to have been based on this New Jersey material.

The relationships of the short-winged mellea and the long-winged varieties here treated as belonging to the same species, and the position of mellea in our present subgenus, are discussed in the general treatment of Acraspis and in the introduction to our present species. In southern Georgia and Mississippi there is another short-winged variety, bifurca, which resembles mellea in many respects, altho it has a wing venation of such a distinctly different type that we must consider mellea and bifurca independent mutations from the long- winged stock of the species.

Biorhiza mellea (Ashmead 1887)

Hosts: Quercus chapmanii

[Asexual generation detachable leaf gall found in the fall]