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
Andricus
Hartig, 1840
The concepts of the gallwasp genera
Andricus
Hartig, 1840
and
Callirhytis
Foerster, 1869
are still somewhat chaotic, especially for Nearctic
Callirhytis
. According to
Weld (1951
,
1952a
) species that have a basal lobe on their tarsal claws (toothed tarsal claw) belong to
Andricus
, while species without a basal lobe on the tarsal claws (tarsal claw simple) have been placed in
Callirhytis
.
Nieves-Aldrey (1992)
, in his revision of the European
Callirhytis
species
, showed that the sexual and asexual generations of different
Callirhytis
species
vary in the presence or absence of toothed tarsal claws, and hence that this character cannot be used to distinguish these genera. Originally
Callirhytis
was erected for the European species by
Foerster (1869)
and the main generic diagnostic characters he proposed were the transversely striate mesoscutum and the presence of the malar sulcus.
Weld (1922a
,b, 1926, 1952a, 1959) included many species in
Callirhytis
and established particular species groups, but neglected the diagnostic characters of
Callirhytis
given by
Foerster (1869)
. As a result, the Nearctic
Callirhytis
became a polyphyletic group, as has been demonstrated with multiple datasets (
Nylander 2004
,
Liljeblad
et al.
2008
,
Ronquist
et al
. 2015
). Many North American species assigned to
Callirhytis
(
Weld 1951
,
1952a
,
Burks 1979
) have already been transferred to the newly established genera
Zapatella
,
Melikaiella
and
Kokkocynips
(
Nieves-Aldrey
et al
. 2021
,
Pujade-Villar
et al
. 2012a
,
2014a
). The tarsal claw character is equally confusing in
Andricus
. In some
Andricus
species
, the male of the sexual generation has tarsal claws without a basal lobe, while in the females the basal lobe on the tarsal claws is present, for example, in the Western Palaearctic
A. quercusramuli
(
Linnaeus, 1761
)
and the Eastern Palaearctic
A. mairei
(
Kieffer, 1906
) (
Pujade-Villar
et al
. 2020b
)
. Therefore, in our interpretation of
Andricus
and
Callirhytis
we have used other characters and ignored the presence/absence of the basal lobe on the tarsal claws. As a result, all of the relevant new species described herein have been placed in
Andricus
, regardless of this character. We also note that the presence/absence of a basal lobe on the tarsal claws remains a stable and important character at the species level.
Burks (1979)
, in accordance with
Weld’s (1951)
concept of the presence (
Andricus
) or absence (
Callirhytis
) of a basal lobe on tarsal claws, assigned 88 species to
Andricus
.
Dailey & Sprenger (1973a)
returned one species into
Andricus
, where it had originally been described but subsequently moved from.
Melika
& Abrahamson (2002)
moved multiple species in and out of
Andricus
, and also noted several other previously published taxonomic changes involving
Andricus
species.
Since then,
Pujade-Villar
et al
. (2013b)
described one species from the south-western
USA
,
Pujade-Villar
et al
. (2017b)
moved two species into the re-established
Dros
, and
Zimmerman (2018)
reestablished
Trichoteras
for a set of
Andricus
species
galling
Quercus
section
Protobalanus
oaks. A new species of
Andricus
,
A. notholithocarpi
Melika,
Nicholls & Stone, 2018
, was described from
California
(
Nicholls
et al
. 2018a
), joining the species
A. mendocinensis
Weld, 1957
as the only
Andricus
species
not galling a
Quercus
host, instead attacking the close relative
Notholithocarpus
(previously known as
Lithocarpus densiflorus
). Most recently
Melika
et al
. (2021) moved one
Andricus
species
into the new genus
Disholandricus
. Hence currently 91
Andricus
species
are known from America north of
Mexico
, associated with five different oak sections or genera of
Fagaceae
(
Table 1
).
TABLE 1.
Nearctic
Andricus
species
galling different oak sections or genera with
Fagaceae
.
Sections in the genus
Quercus
|
Other
Fagaceae
genera
|
Quercus |
Virentes |
Lobatae
|
Protobalanus
|
Notholithocarpus
|
host unknown |
80 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Only two
Andricus
species
,
A. quercusfoliatus
(
Ashmead, 1881
)
and
A
.
quercuslanigera
(
Ashmead, 1881
)
, are known to associate with the oak section
Virentes
. Only one
Andricus
species
,
A. projectus
Weld, 1952
, is associated with
Protobalanus
oaks, while the species
A. formosalis
Weld, 1944
,
A. quercusformosus
(
Bassett, 1864
)
and
A. longipennis
(
Ashmead, 1887
)
gall section
Lobatae
oaks.
Herein we describe 16 new species of
Andricus
of which five species are associated with
Quercus
section
Lobatae
, 10 species with section
Quercus
, and one species with section
Virentes
.