﻿AMERICAN CYNIPID GALL WASPS — WELD 319 



Europe and this species was introduced, together witli its host plant, 

 into the eastern United States. It should be known by the specific 

 name that Linnaeus gave to it. Taylor ( Amer. Journ. Botany, vol. 36, 

 pp. 222-230, February 1949) published an excellent study of the early 

 stages of this gall. 



Genus DIPLOLEPIS Geoffrey 



Rhodites Hartig, 1840, was founded on three species and Foerster 

 in 1869 designated Cynips rosae Linnaeus as the type. The name is 

 transliterated from a Greek word meaning "pertaining to a rose." 

 Thus the name when applied to an insect implies an association with 

 rose. In both the American and European literature up to 1917 the 

 maker of a rose gall has been placed consistently in Rhodites. 



Neither Hartig nor Foerster seems to have consulted the old litera- 

 ture. Geoffroy in 1762 (Histoire abregee des insectes, vol. 2, p. 308) 

 proposed the genus Diplolepis for six species of gall makers, which 

 he designated simply by number. Under No. 1 he cites Rosel, ins. 

 vol. 3, suppl., plates 35, 36, and 53, figs. 10, 11, where he describes 

 and figures an insect and gall on the leaf of oak without name. 

 (Fourcroy in 1785 gave the name Diplolepis quercus to Geoffrey's 

 No. 1.) In the bibliography of his No. 2 he cites among others 

 Systema Naturae, ed. 10, p. 553, No. 1, 1758, which is Cynips rosae 

 Linnaeus. The other numbered species lack a bibliography and 

 have no standing. Thus by a reference the genus is established on 

 one named species, and the definite designation of Cynips rosae as the 

 type by Rohwer and Fagan in 1917 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 53, 

 p. 365) was unnecessary. They seem to feel that there is some slight 

 doubt about the supposed designation of C. rosae as type by Geoffroy. 

 The genus is monobasic. It is next-to-the-oldest name in the Cyni- 

 pidae and was plainly intended to apply to a gall maker. And yet 

 it does not appear in the key to genera in Foerster (1869), Mayr 

 (IBM), or Ashmead (1903), either as a valid name or a synonym. It 

 was used erroneously in 1910 by Dalla Torre and Kieffer in Das 

 Tierreich, Lief. 24, Cynipidae. 



As Rhodites and Diplolepis are isogenotypic, Rhodites disap- 

 pears in synonymy, although there is sentiment for having it 

 placed on the conservanda list. Kinsey and Aj'res (Indiana Uni- 

 versity Studies, vol. 9, Study 53, 1922) were the first to adopt Diplo- 

 lepis in place of Rhodites., and Felt in 1940 (Plant galls and gall 

 makers) followed their example. The name is coming into increased 

 use among American authors. Europeans still use Rhodites. It is a 

 case of an appropriate name made familiar by a century of usage 

 against the plain intent of an older author. The establishment of 

 a name by a reference is not an unusual or doubtful procedure. Lin- 



