Cynips (plumbea) claripennis, new species
agamic form

GALL.-Nearly spherical, with an occasional, short, fine, bluntly pro truding point; gall flattened only on a limited base; dull, slightly shrivel ing, with lead gray scurf rather persistent; older gall reddish tan to dark red brown; up to 7.5 mm. in diameter. Figure 112.

HOSTS.—Quercus intricata and Q. Pringlei, two shrubby oaks which were not well separated in the field at the time of our collections.

RANGE.-Tamaulipas: Tula, 22 N, 6100' (types). Probably restricted to a more northern area in the Eastern Sierra of Mexico, possibly restricted to the intricata group of dwarf oaks. Figure 102

LIFE HISTORY..—Adults: February 2

This insect is close to plumbea, subfusca, and glabrescens, but its wing veins are heavier, and the cubital cell (in our two insects) is practically free of all spots and blotches. The gall, moreover, is so distinctive that we can be certain that there is a distinct species represented here, even if the available insect material is quite inadequate. The gall is not broadly flattened as in the other species; it is dull and more or less persistently Scurfy, and decidedly warty, with an occasional protruding point. The hosts are such distinctive dwarf oaks that host isolation alone might account for the segregation of the species, even if it were not separated from the related species by two or three hundred miles of largely oak-free plateau lying between the Eastern and Western Sierras.