Key to the North American tribes and genera of herb, rose, bramble, and inquiline gall wasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipoidea, Cynipidae sensu lato) Author Nastasi, Louis F. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7825-480X Frost Entomological Museum, Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 Agricultural Science & Industries Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA lfnastasi@gmail.com Author Buffington, Matthew L. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1900-3861 Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA-ARS, c / o National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, MRC 168, Washington, DC, 20013, USA Author Davis, Charles K. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6056-3903 Frost Entomological Museum, Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 Agricultural Science & Industries Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA Author Deans, Andrew R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2119-4663 Frost Entomological Museum, Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 Agricultural Science & Industries Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA text ZooKeys 2024 2024-03-25 1196 177 207 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1196.118460 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1196.118460 1313-2970-1196-177 D10E0EA016D742B983D93871CBF06FE1 14134BBB9A435A4088CCFC53DC50430B Buffingtonella Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar, 2019 Type species. Ceroptres politus Ashmead, 1896 Diagnosis. Area between toruli not depressed and without dense pubescence. Metasomal tergite 1 relatively large and ring-like, not concealed, and longitudinally striate. Frons entirely without facial carinae ventral to toruli. Note. Buffingtonella is known only from Virginia from eight specimens collected in 1884 and 1885 ( Lobato-Vila and Pujade-Villar 2019 ). These specimens were apparently ovipositing into the midribs of leaves of Quercus rubra L. at the time of collection, and as such, B. polita has been assumed to be an inquiline of an unidentified oak gall wasp ( Lobato-Vila and Pujade-Villar 2019 ). However, the placement of this genus in Ceroptresini , its recognition as distinct from other related taxa, and its biology remain to be substantiated ( Lobato-Vila and Pujade-Villar 2019 ). Upon examining the aforementioned material of this species in the National Museum of Natural History, we confirm the diagnostic characters for the genus as described by Lobato-Vila and Pujade-Villar (2019) and have included it in the above key. North American species (Nastasi and Deans 2021): 1. Buffingtonella polita (Ashmead, 1896)