FIELD NOTES ON GALL-INHABITING CYNIPID WASPS 

 AVITH DESCKIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES 



By Lewis H. Wfxd 

 Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



The present paper, dealing with the true gallflies (Cynipidae) of 

 (he order Hymenoptera, contains descriptions of 53 new species (of 

 which all but two guest flies from the Philippines are from the 

 I.^nited States), descriptions of the associated sex of 5 old species 

 described from one sex only, and biological notes on about 180 other 

 described sj^ecies. It was prepared under the general direction of 

 S. A. Rohwer, custodian of Hymenoptera in the LTnited States Na- 

 tional Museum, where types of the new species are deposited. 



The beginner in the study of the gall-making Cynipidae is handi- 

 capped and often discouraged by the lack of published information 

 as to the date of emergence of the maker of the gall. Not knowing 

 what time of year to collect the galls to get the maker, he rears noth- 

 ing or g.'ts only guests or parasites. Some general suggestions on 

 this point, applying only to Cynipid galls, how^ever, may be of 

 value. Galls on herbaceous plants like Fragaria^ Potentilla^ Nepeta^ 

 Silphlum^ Am.hrosm, Microseris, Hypochoe7'is, Lactuca, Lyr/odesmia, 

 and Prenanthes may be collected in the fall if they can be put 

 where they will not dry out too much but are better left in the 

 open all winter and brought into the laboratory in the spring. A 

 past board box Avitli a vial or test tube in one side makes a conve- 

 nient breeding cage. Many galls on shrubby plants like Rosa, 

 I?uhus\ and Chrysothauuius may be treated in the same way. The 

 succulent vernal galls on the leaves, buds, and flowers of oak must, 

 however, usually be left on the tree until the larvae within use up 

 all the nutritive layer of plant tissue and transform into pupae but 

 such species d 'velop rapidly and it is a matter of leaving them 

 some days or at most but a few weeks longer. When the larvae are 

 about mature or the pupa stage is reached twigs bearing such galls 

 can be put in a bottle of water with cotton plugged tightly around 

 the stems at the mouth of the bottle so that the emerging flies can 



No. 261 1.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 68. Art. 10 



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