Sphaeroteras zinzala (Kinsey) n. comb.

Biorhiza zinzala Kinsey, 1937: 459.
Trigonaspis zinzala (Kinsey) Pujade-Villar y Ferrer-Suay, 2015: 12.

[Attending to the morphological characters and the host plants, we consider there to be three species of Sphaeroteras in Mexico: S solita, tanos, and zinzala. We cannot exclude the possibility that, in the future, the color forms S solita and S tanos will be considered the same species. For the moment, other than color, these species are separated by the host plants in which their galls are found; thus, S solita produces galls on multiple species of Quercus (arizonica, chihuahuensis, deserticola, jaralensis, magnoliifolia, microphylla, rugosa, and undulata [should be undata?]), while S tanos has only one host on which S solita is not found (Quercus repanda). Sphaeroteras zinzala has been collected in two hosts distinct from the other two species of Sphaeroteras mentioned (Quercus intricata and pringlei).

The galls of the three species of Sphaeroteras from Mexico are indistinguishable. Kinsey (1937) mentioned that they are like those of B pulchripennis. They are characterized by being more or less circular, between 3-4.5 mm in diameter, being located in the lower side of the leaves sometimes in great numbers, being attached to the midrib or secondary veins, being yellow to light brown, having the surface smooth and glossy covered in a short pubescence easily rubbed off with a few short darker bumps, having the base more or less flat with a longitudinal depression corresponding to the point where it meets the leaf vein; the larval cell is eccentric, attached to the walls of the gall by fine white filaments.]

Biorhiza zinzala, n. sp.
Agamic form

Gall. — Similar to that of B. pulchripennis, but distinct in shape; medium to dark brown in color; shaped like an inverted flask, attached by a cylindrical base, averaging near 0.7 mm. in diameter, the base immediately expanding into a swollen, elongate, flask-shaped or more nearly spherical top which may be up to 3.0 mm. but averages nearer 2.3 mm. in diameter, the exit hole usually at the very tip of the gall.

Host. — Quercus intricata, Q. Pringlei (two scrub oaks not clearly distinct in the type locality of zinzala).

Range. — Tamaulipas: Tula, 22 N, 6100* (types, Quercus intricata and Q. Pringlei). Miquihuana, 25 NW, 7500’ (Q. Pringlei). Miquihuana, 7 SE, 6000’ (Q. Pringlel). Probably confined to a portion of the eastern Mexican Sierra, in and adjacent to the southwestern corner of Tamauli.pa&.

Life History.— Adults: February 5, 11. March 10, 15.

This insect is probably confined to a portion of die eastern Mexican Siena centering in the southwestern comer of Tamaulipas. The two localities from which we have this species, zinzala, are some thirty miles apart — the two collections made four year's apart, on expeditions which penetrated this part of the Eastern Sierra from opposite directions. The oak in this region, occurs in narrow bands which may wind, at particular altitudes for each species, for considerable distances about the mountains sides, though the vertical spread is never great. Semi-tropic and desert wastes limit the lower extent of these oaks; in many of the ranges wind-swept and often cold mountain divides prevent the spread of most of the fauna and flora from one side to the other of the same ridge. The frequent limitation of moisture to nail canyons increases the possibility that each cynipid species is an endemic restricted to some very limited portion of the mountains; and yet we know some cynipids which range a hundred miles or more in this region, The area is so difficult to penetrate that we have not vet learned enough about it to predict the range of an particular element of its fauna. like the present species zinzala.

It is to be noted that the very low dwarf, Q. cordifolia, which forms dense mats on the highest ridges in this area, bears B. socia (see Figure 4) of the present complex. Zinzala occurs at slightly lower elevations on the taller scrub oaks, Q. intricata and Q. Pringlei (two oaks which are not always separable in every locality).