Kinsey: Gall Wasp Genus Cynips 75 
The chief path of migration of Cynips moving* eastward 
from Missouri probably bent southward about the southern 
Appalachians and finally up the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The 
present occurrence of so-called Coastal Plain Cynipidae, or 
close relatives of Coastal Plain species, across the state of 
Missouri, thru adjacent parts of the Mississippi Valley, and 
along the course of the Tennessee River, as well as out on the 
Atlantic Coastal Plain itself, probably records the path of 
migration from the Rockies to the easternmost limits of the 
United States. In the systematic portion of this study data 
bearing on this point are recorded and mapped under : 
Cynips centricola centricola 
C. pezomachoides pezomachoides 
C. pezomachoides derivatus 
C. gemmula fuscata 
C. mellea Carolina 
The restriction of the short-winged species of each of the 
stocks of the eastern subgenera to those points which are 
furthest along this supposed route out of the Southwest, is 
some further verification of the route. Spreading to the 
north and to the south of this main path, the ancestral stocks 
gave rise, by mutation and isolation and, in the few cases 
noted, by subsequent recombination of characters in hybrid- 
ization, to the numerous populations which are the species 
or varieties today. This history is summarized in the phylo- 
genetic maps. 
Many will find the present-day species of our genus not 
easy of identification. There are some who are inclined to 
believe that species are, after all, but human concepts instead 
of realities in nature. Some will consider that individuals 
are so variable and interbreeding Mendelian races so abund- 
ant in nature that taxonomic classifications can be nothing 
but contrivances without biologic significance. And yet, when 
the Colorado of the West first cut into the Colorado Plateau 
the specific stocks of Cynips were in existence, and thruout 
the years that the Canyon has been cutting, even down onto 
the present, these complexes which we call species have main- 
tained their identity. While the eternal hills have come and 
gone, these instable protoplasmic entities have maintained 
their stability. A stability like that of a stream, with mater- 
ials always contributing from many sources, with endlessly 
