Neuroterus floccosus (Bassett, 1881), comb rev., sexual generation

Synonyms: Cynips floccosa Bassett (1881b: 111), asexual female, gall. Neuroterus floccosus combination by Mayr (1881: 37). Neuroterus verrucarum var. floccosus combination by Kinsey (1923: 70); combination of Mayr (1881) restored by Weld (1951: 621).
Neuroterus verrucarum var. pernotus Kinsey, 1923. Synonymized by Weld (1951: 621).
Melika & Abrahamson (1997) erroneously synonymized N. floccosus with N. quercusverrucarum.

Biology. See Bassett (1881b), Beutenmueller (1910), and Weld (1926) for the biology of the asexual generation. Asexual galls (Fig. 149) have been recorded on leaves of Q. bicolor and Q. macrocarpa. Galls become apparent in August as small depressions filled with loose, pale wool on the underside of new, terminal, long shoot leaves. Multiple galls often co-occur on a single leaf, which causes the leaf to curl, and galls tend to be found on stumps or damaged trees bearing vigorous, long late-season shoots. Adult females of the asexual generation emerge the spring following gall induction, from mid-April to late May. Galls of the sexual generation first appeared in late May on Q. macrocarpa in Edmonton, and adults emerged in late July and early August.

Distribution. USA: from Virginia west to Illinois (Burks 1979). Canada: Ontario (Burks 1979), Manitoba. This species was only reared in sleeves in Edmonton, Alberta, and does not naturally occur on bur oak there.

Neuroterus floccosus

Quercus bicolor, macrocarpa, prinoides
Leaf galls, integral
Small, woolly, in numbers on under side of leaves on vigorous shoots from stumps in fall.

"Like Neuroterus floccosus"

Quercus lyrata
Leaf galls, integral
Small, woolly, in numbers on under side of leaves on vigorous shoots in fall.

[Photo caption]
On Q macrocarpa. Also on Q bicolor, prinoides, lyrata. Adults probably emerged the next spring.

Neuroterus quercusverrucarum (Osten Sacken) [partial, synonymy reversed by Nicholls et al 2022]

Cynips quercus verrucarum Osten Sacken 1861: 62. Females and galls (types examined).
Cynips verrucarum: Osten Sacken 1865: 354.
Neuroterus verrucarum: Ashmead 1885a: 296, 304.
Neuroterus quercusverrucarum: Burks 1979: 1075.
Neuroterus exiguissimus Bassett 1900: 332. Females and galls (types examined). New synonymy.
Cynips flocossa Bassett 188 1 : 1 1 1. Females and galls (types examined). New synonymy.
Neuroterus verrucarum var. pernotus Kinsey 1923: 74.
Neuroterus flocossus: Burks 1979: 1073

Biology.--Only the unisexual generation is known. This species induces detachable leaf galls which are small, smooth, seed- like larval cells, hard, thin-walled, and covered with a dense flattened yellowish brown mass of wool that dries brown. The gall is monothalamous, attached to the underside of the leaf by a small point to the leaf vein, separable, but the leaf is depressed at the point of attachment. The average diameter of a gall is 2.0 mm by 1.0 mm high. The galls are usually numerous, covering the whole underside of the leaf and are found on Quercus alba, Q. bicolor Willd., Q. chapmanii, Q. margaretta, and Q. stellata. Viereck (1916) also recorded Q. macrocarpa Michx. as a host, but this must be confirmed. Galls begin to develop in September (Weld 1959). According to Kinsey (1923), the galls appear after mid-summer in August and the larvae do not mature until late in the fall. Adults emerge the next spring in February to March.

Distribution.-Ontario, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, west to Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, south to Florida.

Neuroterus floccosus

Galls of this species on Quercus bicolor were common in fall at Evanston, IL., often deforming all the leaves near the tip of thrifty sprouts. Adults issued April 15. Have had specimens of gall from Becker, Minn., (L. Haney) and the Pergande collection contained galls from St. Louis, Mo.

Cynips floccosa, n. sp.

The late, terminal leaves of the thrifty shoots of young oaks of the species Q. bicolor are often thickly dotted on the under side with small hairy, or rather woolly, galls, sometimes as many as two hundred being found on a single leaf The leaves are sometimes quite small, and in such instances the galls become nearly or quite confluent. They measure, including their woolly covering, about .15 of an inch across, but divested of this, only .05 or .06, and each contains but a single larva. The larva is free, having no larval cell. The galls are hemispherical, and attached by their flat side to the leaf, and they show on the upper surface only as small, smooth, flat, shining blisters. They are so much infested by inquilines and other parasites that all attempts to rear true gall flies from them proved fruitless for many years. I, at length, succeeded in rearing in the spring a considerable number of true gall flies from galls collected the October preceding in Northern Ohio, Only females have yet been reared, and these minute creatures will be found, no doubt, like other and larger ones that live over winter in the galls, to be only of one sex.

Neuroterus verriicarum variety floccosus (Bassett)

Cynips floccosa Bassett, 1881
Neuroterus floccosus Mayr, 1881

GALL. — As described for the species; averaging rather large; on Quercus bicolor.

RANGE. — Ohio: northern (Bassett). Illinois? (Beutenmuller). Probably confined to a northern portion of the Middle West.

I have examined 203 insects from the Bassett ‘"type” material at the Philadelphia Academy; of these, only 41 are true floccosus while 162 represent variety pernotus, probably from Q. bicolor at Waterbury, Connecticut. As is well known, it was often Bassett’s custom to place all of his material of a species in a single box, and apparently this happened in the case of floccosus. Of the two varieties among the Bassett types, one agrees in its dark colorings, larger size of areolet, and greater length with the Bassett description of material from northern Ohio; the other does not agree with the description of floccosus and does agree with types of pernotus which is a New England variety. Very likely Bassett obtained his pernotus material near Waterbury, Connecticut. The northern Ohio material must stand as floccosus even tho it is not as abundant among the Bassett “types”.

Neuroterus verrucarum variety pernotus, new variety

Neuroterus floccosus Beutenmuller, 1892

GALL. — As described for the species; larger than the galls of other varieties; on Quercus bicolor.

RANGE. — Massachusetts: Worcester? (Thompson coll.); Boston (Clarke); Springfield (Stebbins) ; Forest Hills. Connecticut: Waterbury (in Bassett collection); New Haven (Felt in N.Y. State Mus.). New York: New York City (Beutenmuller). New Jersey: Broadway, Carmel. Probably confined to a northeastern area of the United States