Pontania with Type VI galls [Smith does not name or describe a species and is ambiguous about whether he considers these host varieties or distinct species on each host.]

[A cross sectional drawing appears in Figure 4, on page 5 of the pdf]

Type VI is the most common Pontania gall-form in California. It is large (10 mm), thick-walled, and protrudes through both upper and lower leaf surfaces. The galls may be round or oval, and the surface is smooth (or pubescent, if the host is so) except for characteristic warty lenticels. Adjacent cecidia frequently anastamose. This category comes close also to the P. viminalis group. On S. sp. near lemmonii in extreme northern California, Type VI galls are pruinose (host plant effect), but nearly all others of Type VI are glossy or lightly pubescent. The most common Pontania in California makes galls that belong to this group, and has been known traditionally as P. pacifica Marlatt. The actual identity of this polymorphic species is unclear, and it is probably synonymous with P. californica Marlatt and others described by him in his 1896 paper. The species attacks S. lasiolepis, especially variety bigelovii Torrey, and the center of distribution is from Monterey County north through Marin County along the California coast. There is another species of Pontania on transmontane S. lasiolepis. Other Pontania making Type VI galls include the very common species on S. lemmonii and Salix sp. near lemmonii, and a rare one on S. scouleriana. Both are common throughout the Sierra Nevada and in the southern Cascade Range.

Pontania californica

Salix
Leaf galls

Similar to preceding ["Flattish yellow-green, length .25 to .5 inch"], only one gall on the leaf, sawfly, spring

Pontania californica
Willow-apple-gall sawfly
[Page 222, Plate 374]

Hosts: Salix lasiolepis and lemmonii groups

"While glabrous and generally smooth, these galls do possess minute, wart-like scales or tubercles called LENTICELS. This species is the only sawfly gall-inducer in the West with galls bearing such lenticels."

Range: throughout the West and as far north as the Alaskan tundra

Pontania californica, new species

Gall. — Gall of the type desmodioides, not differing in the dried specimens in any noticeable manner from the latter. Length 8 to 12 mm. Normally but one gall occurs on a leaf. The galls were received from Mr. H. T. Turner, Eastlake, Cal., August 26, 1883, and the adults issued between September 18, 1883, and March 24, 1884.

Nine females and 3 males, 8 of which — 6 females and 2 males — were reared from willow-leaf galls collected by Mr. Turner in California. (Coll. U. S. Nat, Mus.)

One male collected at Alameda, Cal., in March by Mr. Koebele, and the others collected in Southern California, (Colls. U. S. Nat, Mus. and Am. Ent. Soc.)