Trigonaspis obconica, new species

Host.--Quercus douglasii

Gall.--An underground cluster of fleshy white galls at base of stumps similar to galls of T. radicola (Ashmead), but with longer and more slender pedicels. After flies emerge the galls decay. In May.

Type locality. — Los Gatos, California. Paratypes from Paso Robles also.

Biology. — Collected at Los Gatos May 14, 1918, when galls contained pupae and exit holes showed where some adults had already emerged. In breeding cages three males issued May 16 and three more on May 17. At Paso Robles on May 6 galls contained larvae and pupae. In cage four adults issued by May 13, six by May 25, and one June 2.

Xanthoteras obconicum (Weld) sex-gen

Quercus douglasii, lobata
"Root" galls
White, in cluster, fleshy, at base of stumps in May. Similar to Fig 55 the gall of an eastern species.

55. Galls of Xanthoteras radicola (Ashm.). An eastern species but galls of Xanthoteras obconicum (Weld), sex-gen, would look like these. Obconicus occurs on Q. douglasii and lobata at the crown of tree hidden in debris. Adults emerge in May after which the fleshy galls dry up.

[Undescribed]

Quercus garryana
"Root" galls
Fleshy, white or pinkish, in cluster at crown, like Fig 55. Adults only seen from Corvallis, OR.

Trigonaspis obconica

Galls of this species were observed on a dozen or more trees of Quercus lobata, a previously unrecorded host, at Cloverdale and Santa Rosa, Calif., on May 7, 1922, usually at the base of small trees. The galls were rosy when only slightly buried but white or yellowish if deeper. At this date the galls contained both pupae and adults, the flies emerging May 13, 17, 20.

Xanthoteras pulchellum

Dryophanta pulchella
Trigonaspis obconica (new synonymy)

In 1930 Weld noted this synonymy on a determination label on material in the USNM, and later in his manuscript key to the species of Xanthoteras, but it has never been published. Our examination of the types confirms the synonymy. Beutenmuller described pulchella from two females, one from Santa Catalina Island, and one from Hood River, Oregon, both in the USNM. We have selected the California specimen as lectotype.

Cynips pulchella
bisexual form

Dryophanta pulchella

No material of this insect has been available for the present study. From the original description pulchella would ap- pear to be a true Cynips. The naked abdomen, blotched and spotted wings, and Pacific Coast distribution suggest that the subgeneric position is in Antron. All of the characters of the insect and the June collection would identify this as a bisexual form, and if it is a true Antron this must be the bisexual generation of some variety of C. teres or C. guadaloupensis. The bisexual forms of C. echinus are known to differ in detail from pulchella. The naive admission that the Oregon specimen has a black thorax while the Catalina Island specimen has a red thorax is, of course, in accord with our knowledge that southern Californian cynipids may be represented by closely related but not identical varieties in northern Oregon. Until someone obtains access to the Beutenmuller collection, it will be impossible to determine which of the two type specimens deserves the name pulchella and which represents the unnamed variety. Pulchella has not been counted in the statistics given in this paper, for if it proves the bisexual generation of some described, agamic form of Antron , it will not alter the total number of varieties known in the genus.