Melikaiella corrugis comb. n.

Cynips corrugis
Callirhytis corrugis
Callirhytis defecta
Callirhytis petrosa

Only the asexual generation is known.

Hosts: Quercus coccinea, ilicifolia, incana [Quercus prinoides is also listed but considered dubious]

[No new description or photo of the gall is given]

Adults of C. corrugis appeared in May (Bassett, 1881), while C. petrosa - in March (Weld, 1922b). According to Weld (1922b), C. petrosa induce a mass of confluent woody cells inside the acorn in place of the normal cotyledons, found in fall and affecting acorns of the current season crop and causing them to be more or less stunted in size.

Distribution: GA, CT, FL, TX, VA, WA

Callirhytis corrugis (Bassett), which induces acorn galls on red oaks

Callirhytis petrosa

Quercus cinerea [incana]
Acorn galls
A stone gall inside a mature acorn in fall. Type host. Adults emerged Apr 20-26 the third spring.

[Photo caption (no photo)]
A similar [to Callirhytis fructuosa] stone gall on Q cinerea [incana]. Adults emerged Apr 20-26 the third spring.

Callirhytis corrugis

Quercus imbricaria, palustris, rubra, velutina
Acorn galls
A stone gall inside a mature acorn in fall and not distinguished from fructuosa in the field. Fig 70.

[Photo caption (no photo)]
Has been reared along with Callirhytis fructuosa from stone galls in acorns of Q palustris, imbricaria, rubra, velutina. This species was taken ovipositing in buds of Q velutina Apr 1-29 in ten different seasons (DC).

Cynips corrugis, n. sp.

This species is founded on a single specimen which I took from the claws of a small spider that had evidently just killed it. The spider was in a cluster of the sterile flowers of Quercus prinoides. The capture was made on the 11th of May. This species is remarkable for the almost diaphanous wing veins, the pedicellate abdomen, and the coarsely corrugated sculpturing of the thorax. It is a female, and may have been in the act of ovipositing in the young acorns or the buds of this oak when killed by the spider.

Callirhytis petrosa, new species

Host. — Quercus brevifolia Sargent. [Quercus incana]

Gall. — A mass of confluent woody cells inside the acorn in place of the normal cotyledons. Found in fall affecting acorns of current season's crop and causing them to be more or less stunted in size.

Habitat. — The type locality is Palestine, Texas, where affected acorns were collected October 16, 1917. Five living flies were cut out of galls on December 1, 1919, and as full-grown larvae were also found the emergence is distributed over at least two seasons. The normal emergence is probably in the spring. Similar galls were seen at Ocala and at St. Petersburg, Florida, in autumn of 1919.

Callirhytis corrugis (Bassett)

This species was described from one specimen taken on May 11 at Waterbury, Connecticut, from the claws of a spider on flowers of Q. prinoides. It is preserved in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, where the writer has examined it. It is a Callirhytis with nonciliate fore wings, pale venation, simple claws, and is clearly related to those species known to have been reared from stone galls in acorns. The mesoscutum is rugose all over, not tranversely so, coarser behind, the transverse groove at base of scutellum is rugose and of uniform width so that disk is rounded in front, the carinae of propodeum converge slightly above and the first and second cross-veins are not clouded. Determined as this species without direct comparison with the type, the writer has specimens taken at Great Falls, Virginia, and others taken ovipositing in buds of Q. coccinea at Washington on March 27, 1921. Some of these specimens have 13 and others 14 segments in antenna, while corrugis was described as 14-segmented, but the number may vary. If these are correctly determined the only character so far found to separate them from petrosa Weld is the length of the ovipositor, ratio 3.26 in petrosa and 4.8 in those determined as corrugis. The gall of corrugis is still unknown. The sculpture of the fly suggests that it came from a stone gall in an acorn, probably on coccinea or ilicifolia. The alternating generation is also unknown.