New species of Nearctic oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini)
Author
Melika, George
Author
Nicholls, James A.
0000-0002-9325-563X
james.nicholls@csiro.au
Author
Abrahamson, Warren G.
0000-0002-3557-3613
abrahmsn@bucknell.edu
Author
Buss, Eileen A.
eabuss@ufl.edu
Author
Stone, Graham N.
0000-0002-2737-696X
gstone@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-12-23
5084
1
1
131
journal article
2793
10.11646/zootaxa.5084.1.1
bd42fe03-1a35-4f17-b0fe-55b6ec7fdf80
1175-5326
5800716
53B21C11-CA12-480F-8048-1A0601784172
Dryocosmus
Giraud, 1859
In their review of world
Cynipini
genera,
Melika
& Abrahamson (2002)
indicated that this Holarctic genus contained 24 species. Since then membership of this genus has more than doubled, primarily through descriptions of many new species from Asia but also through a small number of new species from the Western Palaearctic and Nearctic (
Azizkhani
et al.
2006
;
Tavakoli
et al.
2008
;
Buffington & Morita 2009
;
Melika
et al.
2010
, 2011;
Ide
et al
. 2013
;
Abe
et al
. 2014a
,b;
Ide & Abe 2015
;
Zhu
et al
. 2015
;
Tang
et al.
2016
;
Cerasa
et al
. 2018
;
Pang
et al
. 2018
;
Nicholls
et al
. 2018b
;
Matsuo
et al
. 2021
). Many of these new species gall
Quercus
section
Cyclobalanopsis
and section
Cerris
oaks as well as related
Fagaceae
genera. Given the rarity of host plant shifts among oak gall wasp lineages (
Stone
et al
. 2009
), this diversity of host plants implies
Dryocosmus
consists of multiple lineages and requires extensive taxonomic revision, a point first raised by
Melika
& Abrahamson (2002)
and supported by recent phylogenetic work showing this genus to be polyphyletic (
Nicholls
et al
. 2018b
;
Nieves-Aldrey
et al
. 2021
). However, such a revision is beyond the scope of the current descriptive work.
Burks (1979)
listed 17 species of
Dryocosmus
Giraud
from America north of
Mexico
. Previously,
Dailey (1969)
had moved one species to
Callirhytis
,
C. attractans
(
Kinsey, 1922
)
which was recently moved to the genus
Kokkocynips
(
Nieves-Aldrey
et al
. 2021
)
, while
Dailey & Sprenger (1973a)
returned one species to
Andricus
,
A. gigas
Kinsey, 1922
where it had originally been described. More recently, three new species were described from California that induce galls on the non-oak
Fagaceae
genus
Chrysolepis
:
D. rileypokei
Morita &
Buffington, 2009
,
D. demartinii
Melika,
Nicholls & Stone, 2018
and
D. juliae
Melika,
Nicholls & Stone, 2018
(
Buffington & Morita 2009
;
Nicholls
et al
. 2018b
); when combined with the previously described
D. castanopsidis
(
Beutenmueller, 1917
)
this brings to four the number of species known from this non-oak host plant genus (mentioned in
Burks (1979)
under its old genus name
Castanopsis
). Recently four Nearctic oak-associated
Dryocosmus
species
were transferred to
Kokkocynips
:
K. rileyi
(
Ashmead, 1896
)
,
K. imbricariae
(
Ashmead, 1896
)
,
K. coxii
(
Bassett, 1881
)
, and
K. deciduus
(Beutenmueller, 1913) (
Nieves-Aldrey
et al.
2021
)
. Thus, currently 14 species of Nearctic
Dryocosmus
are known, and one additional new species,
D
.
archboldi
Melika & Abrahamson
, is described herein.