Kinsey, Ay res: Varieties of a Gall Wasp 



159 



type adults and g-alls at Stanford University, the U.S. National Museum, 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Philadelphia Academy, and 

 with the author. Labelled San Jacinto Mountains, California; Febru- 

 ary 28, 1920; Kinsey collector. 



Of the 93 adults bred, 48, or about 52 per cent, are males. 



Tho we have material from only a single locality, our ex- 

 perience with the distribution of other Cynipidse would sug- 

 gest the range described above. This range lies between the 

 ranges of ruhriderma and descansonis, to which variety 

 sierranensis is very closely related. The galls of all three are 

 very similar, quite distinct from those of any other variety, 

 altho suggesting calif ornica galls; in morphologic characters 

 the adults are intermediate between riibriderma and descan- 

 sonis. This is another instance of the remarkable phe- 

 nomenon of a steadily increasing development of characters 

 along a particular geographic course. But the range of this 

 series of varieties crosses the range of the californica- 

 versicolor-melanderi series. To have this occur without con- 

 sequent crossing of varieties, or mergence of one series into 

 the other, is a matter deserving considerable attention. Dif- 

 ferences in geologic histories of the two ranges, geographic 

 and genetic origins of the two series, means of preserving the 

 distinctness of each series, are factors to be investigated. 



Diplolepis tuberculatrix variety descansonis, new variety 



FEMALE. — Is distinguished from other varieties of the species as 

 follows: General color bright rufous with little black; head rufous 

 brown with a very large black patch between the mouth and the com- 

 pound eyes and extending to the bases of the antennae, sometimes with 

 two black marks behind the eyes converging toward the pronotum; first 

 three segments of the antennae rufous brown, the remaining segments 

 black; thorax rufous brown; median groove entirely absent or just 

 barely evident at the posterior border of the mesonotum; anterior parallel 

 lines not prominent; mesopleurae almost wholly rufous; scutellum wholly 

 rufous; abdomen rufous, rufous to dark brown posteriorly; areolet 

 usually entirely absent; first abscissa of the radius arcuate-angulate, 

 without a projection; radial cell at least in part open; length 2.0-4.0 mm., 

 averaging smaller, 



MALE. — Very similar to the males of other varieties; median groove 

 absent or barely evident at the posterior border of the mesonotum ; 

 areolet generally absent; first abscissa of the radius arcuate-angulate; 

 radial cell more or less closed; length 2.5-3.5 mm. 



GALL. — Quite identical with those of varieties nihridenua and 

 iiierranensis. 



