Callirhytis floridana

Quercus chapmani
Stem galls, woody stem swellings
Lop-sided stem swelling usually close to the ground covered with normal bark. Type host.

Quercus margaretta
Stem galls, woody stem swellings
Thickening of bark on one side of twig, many-celled.

Quercus stellata
Stem galls, woody stem swellings
Puffy thickenings of the bark on one side of the twig, often confluent, many-celled.

[Photo caption]
On Q stellata. Also on margaretta. In the fall the tissue cuts like cheese. Adults out the next April. Gall is usually larger than in photo.

CALLIRHYTIS FLORIDANA (Ashmead)

Andricus? floridanus Ashmead, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., vol. 14, 1887, pp. 132, 137.

This species was described from Q. chapmani from Florida. As the types have the claws simple the species is transferred to Callirhytis. The stem swellings of this species are found in the fall covered with normal bark. They look hard and woody but when cut into they are found to consist of a thick layer of soft white parenchymatous tissue which cuts like cheese, the numerous cells being deeply imbedded next to the true wood. The writer has collected them on Q. stellata and reared flies which agree with the types. Galls from Poplar Bluff, Mo., contained pupae when examined in November, the adults emerging in the spring. Galls were seen also at Texarkana, Ark., and Trinity, Tex. Galls collected at Washington on April 3, 1921, had adults emerging and they continued to emerge until April 18. A moth, Nola phylla Dyar, whose larva feeds on the tissue of the gall, emerged April 16. W. Middleton collected galls at East Falls Church, Va., on March 14, 1920, and reared adults April 19 (Hopkins U. S. No. 14636ᵇ). To test the powers of flight of a Cynipid some recently emerged flies of this species were carried in a vial to a dimly lighted corridor which had a north window at the end and allowed to escape one by one at various distances from the window, on a cloudy day. One was seen to make a straight-away flight to the window at a distance of 45 feet. In 1924 the makers emerged April 26.

10. Andricus? floridanus n. sp.

Galls.—Hard, irregular swellings of a branch or the stem close to the ground, never very high up, from half an inch to three or more inches long by not more than half an inch in diameter. Some specimens might easily be confounded with Andricus batatoides m., Andricus medullae m., or Neuroterus Rileyi Bass., but the gall producer is very distinct from any of these.

Gall-fly.—♂ ♀. Length .12 to .17 inch. Color dark brown, abdomen reddish brown polished. Antennae ♀ 16, ♂ 17 jointed, as long as the whole body, slender, nearly the same thickness throughout. Head and thorax punctate, pubescent, cheeks well rounded; scutellum cushion shaped, pubescent, foveae indistinct; abdomen ovate, slightly compressed; wings hyaline, veins brown, radial vein reaching costal edge; areolet distinct; cubital cell closed, the cubital nervure does not quite reach apical margin.

Described from several specimens. This species in its antennal characters is very distinct from any described species in the Cynipinae, no ♀ yet described having sixteen joints in the antennae; but it seems so closely related to the genus Andricus that it may be placed there temporarily. It is found on Q. parvifolia [chapmanii].

Callirhytis floridana (Ashmead 1887)

Hosts: Quercus chapmanii

[Sexual generation stem swelling gall found in Florida in the fall.]