Kinsey: The Genus Neuroterus 
25 
or parasitic insects. Cynipidse are very larg-ely restricted to 
the relatively limited areas of the world which are inhabited 
by oaks, and many other groups of insects occur over a larger 
number of faunal areas. The failure to recognize with any 
consistency the rather slight but orderly variations between 
related forms; the hesitancy of many students, especially 
beginners, to believe that the form in hand may be unde- 
scribed; and the failure to conceive the extent of the enex- 
plored world, — have certainly delayed our earlier knowledge 
of the mere existence of things. Even if Neuroterus is ex- 
treme in its development of varieties, the recounting of its 
possibilities may not encourage too dangerous a state of mind 
among entomologists. 
Neuroterus Hartig 
Cynips (in part) Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, pp. 343, 553. 
Neuroterus + Spathegaster Hartig, 1840, Germar Ent. Zeit., II, pp. 
185, 186, 192, 194. 
Neuroterus Dalla Torre and Kieffer, 1902, Gen. Ins. Hymen. Cynip., p. 
50; 1910, Das Tierreich, XXIV, p. 307. Beutenmuller, 1910, Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXVIII, p. 117. 
Neuroterus + Dolichostrophus Ashmead, 1887, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 
XIV, p. 129. Dalla Torre, 1893, Cat. Hymen., II, p. 37. Ashmead, 
1903, Psyche, X, p. 151. 
Further restrictions of these terms are given under each subgenus. 
FEMALE. — The following characters apply to all species of the 
genus: HEAD: More or less as broad as the thorax; cheeks nar- 
rower than to protruding behind the eyes; malar space very narrow 
to moderately wide with an indistinct or distinct furrow; mouthparts 
of lighter color than the front; front almost smooth to finely roughened, 
rougher between the ocelli; face always more rough to finely rugose, 
and naked to hairy. Antennae brown, with the two to four basal seg- 
ments usually lighter (if the thorax is piceous to black) or entirely 
yellow (if the thorax is brown or yellow rufous) ; finely pubescent; with 
13 to 15 segments, the third segment not greatly longer than to twice 
the length of the fourth, the last slightly longer than the preceding, 
or twice as long and indistinctly divided. THORAX: Usually about as 
high as wide, and from slightly longer than to twice as long as wide; 
usually entirely black to piceous, sometimes in part or wholly yellowish 
brown; mesonotum usually smooth and shining, less often entirely shag- 
reened, usually naked of hairs, less often moderately hairy, usually with- 
out traces of lines or grooves, less often with more or less indefinite 
traces of these; scutellum usually small, rounded to elongate, the surface 
more or less matching the mesonotum, not separated from the mesonotum 
by a suture, the groove at the base smooth, arcuate, not forming fove^; 
