Cynips fusiformis

8. This insect somewhat resembles C. petiolicola,and, as I possess only a single specimen of it, the difference indicated in the analytical table may not be a constant one ; I will try, therefore, to point out some others. (Compare also below, No. 56, about the possible relationship between this gall and that of Figites chinquapin Fitch).

9. Spindle-shaped galls, inserted like pins on the leaves of Q. prinoides, described by Dr. Fitch (Rep. IT, No. 320). He bred from it an insect which he calls Figites chinquapin. The description of the gall answers that of C. fusiformis very well; that the insect obtained from it by Dr. Fitch is the real author of the gall is possible, but uncertain. Likewise it does not appear why Dr. Fitch calls this gall-fly a Figites.

Andricus chinquapin

Quercus alba, bicolor, prinus [montana], stellata
Leaf galls, integral
Cell at end of a prolonged vein above upper surface of leaf or beyond the edge. May

[Photo caption]
On Q bicolor. Also on Q alba, prinus, stellata. Adults emerged May 18-24 (DC); June 10-16 (IL).

Andricus chinquapin

Figites chinquapin
Cynips fusiformis
Cynips capsula

The two type galls of chinquapin in the National Museum from Q. prinoides are similar to those of capsula from Q. bicolor (another chestnut oak) and the two type flies of capsula sent by Bassett can not be separated from Fitch's type fly which, however, lacks the abdomen.

The holotype of fusiformis in the Museum of Comparative Zoology has not been compared directly with the above types but flies bred from the precisely similar gall on Q. alba can not be separated from them and the writer concludes that these three names all refer to one species making galls on different white oaks. This view has also been expressed by William Beutenmueller in letter.

The writer has taken the gall on Q. montana, rock chestnut oak, at Ithaca, N. Y. ; Alexandria and Great Falls, Va. ; Washington, D. C, where a fly ready to emerge was cut out of gall on May 31. On Q. alba at Evanston, New Lenox, (fly emerged June 7), and Fort Sheridan, IL.: Ironton, Mo.; Falls Church and Rosslyn, Va.; Plummer Island, Md. ; Washington, D. C. Barlow collected them at Cadet, Mo., Miss Howe at Ithaca and Crosby at Farmingdale, X. Y. On Q. bicolor common at Wilmette and Evanston, IL., where flies emerged June 15-23, 1909. and June 10-16, 1912. At Washington galls contained pupae May 6, 1914. These galls have also been seen on Q. macrocarpa at Winnetka, IL. and on Q. stellata at Rosslyn, Va.

Figites chinquapin, new species

Arising perpendicularly or obliquely from the upper surface of the leaves of the Chinquapin oak (Quercus chinquapin), like pins inserted therein, little slender club-shaped galls nearly a half inch long, formed of a pale green elliptic head like a minute pod, tapering into a slender dull brown stalk twice as long as the head, the surface thinly clothed with fine short hairs ; producing a small black gall-fly with bright tawny yellow antennae and legs, its length 0.10. These singular little galls are met with in May, one or more growing upon the same leaf. The walls of the little pod at their summit arc exceedingly thin and the fly comes out through around hole which it gnaws near the upper end. It is remarkably large in comparison with the small delicate gall in which it is nurtured.

Cynips capsula, n. sp.

Galls: Monothalamous, on slender pedicels on the margins of the leaves of Quercus bicolor, rarely more than one on a leaf. The pedicels are from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long. The galls are three- eighths long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter, oval and resemble very closely the capsules of certain mosses. Surface rough, and with the pedicel finely pilose, or rather, pubescent. The pedicel is usually, but not invariably, the extension of a lateral leaf vein. The whole is of the color of the under side of the leaves of this species of oak. Most of the leaves which bear galls are fully developed, but a part are more or less imperfect and occasionally a gall is found on what is but the merest rudiment of a leaf.

The galls appear with the leaves and the insects come out early in June. This little gall is a true larval cell and its thin walls offer slight obstacle to the attacks of parasites.

The gall flies are of both sexes.

Cynips quercus fusiformis, n. sp.

Quercus alba. White oak. Elongated, fusiform gall on a pedicel. mostly on the margin, sometimes on the surface of the leaf.

Resembles the preceding [quercuscoelebs], but is much smaller. The pedicel is 0.2 or 0.8 long, the fusiform body about 0.15 or 0.2 and ends in a point. The pedicel is a prolongation of one of the leaf-veins. The color of the gall is that of the leaf, that is, it is green as long as the leaf is green and fades with it. This gall was first communicated to me by Mr. T. Grlover, at the Maryland Agricultural College. He had obtained a parasitical Hymenopteron from it. In May 1861 I found several specimens of the same gall on a young white oak and succeeded in rearing the gall-fly.