Kinsey: Gall Wasp Genus Cynips 
201 
GALL. — Very close to that of variety dumosae, distinguishable 
chiefly by its more shining surface. Irregularly cushion-shaped, spher- 
oidal, more or less flattened in places, the base more or less constricted, 
the apical end more or less widened and flattened, bearing a few, very 
short and blunt projections mostly on the rim of the gall; mature galls 
yellowish and rose or brownish red, the surface shining, varnished, 
without a puberulence; on Quercus dumosa. Figure 150. 
RANGE. — California: Victorville (types; V. H. Ward in Kinsey 
coll.). Northeastern Los Angeles County (galls, W. Ebeling in Kinsey 
coll.). 
Probably restricted to a limited area in or just north of the San 
Bernardino Mountains. Figure 26. 
TYPES. — One female and many galls in the Kinsey collection. 
Paratype galls in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the U.S. Na- 
tional Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the California 
Academy, and the Stanford University collections. Labelled Victorville, 
California; galls September 5, 1926; Q. dumosa; V. H. Ward collector. 
The galls of this variety are almost identical in shape with 
those of dumosae. The two occur on the same host, but mista 
galls may be distinguished by their shining surfaces that ap- 
pear as tho they were varnished. The insect of mista is very 
dark rufous in color and in every respect closer to variety 
vicina and thus readily distinguished from the light brown- 
ish insect of dumosae. It is very interesting to find the in- 
sect physiologically similar to its nearest neighbor {dumosae) 
on the south, and morphologically more like its neighbor 
{vicina) to the north. It is possible that the insect originated 
as a hybrid of dumosae and vicina, or just as possible that it 
achieved its characters by entirely independent evolution from 
some common stock of all these varieties. 
The two collections we have of mista come from the broken 
mountain ridges that extend northward from the San Ber- 
nardino range into the Mojave Desert, an area in which a 
distinct variety might become isolated. But the San Ber- 
nardino range itself usually has a fauna distinct from that 
of the other mountains of California, and the range of mista 
may include the whole San Bernardino area. 
The type galls were collected at Victorville by Mr. V. H. 
Ward, a High School teacher in Monrovia, California, on Sep- 
tember 5, 1926, at which time they were full-sized altho the 
larvae they contained were still very small. Only one of these 
insects succeeded in maturing and emerging from the galls at 
some (undetermined) time in the following winter. 
