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shagreened, covered with a stellate pubescence when young, the older 
galls becoming more naked but still with a whitish puberulence ; the 
younger galls probably whitish or pinkish, the older galls rather dark 
purplish brown. The thin outer shell re-enforced with a rather thick 
mass of not very hard, crystalline material, the larval cell highly vari- 
able in size, often occupying most of the interior of the gall, the wall 
of the cell without a distinct cell wall; on leaves of Quercus grisea. 
Figures 290, 291, 333. 
RANGE. — Texas: Alpine (types); Fort Davis. 
Probably confined to the mountain ranges of western Texas and 
adjacent parts of New Mexico; related varieties known to occur in more 
southern New Mexico and Arizona; probably in Mexico. Figure 57. 
TYPES. — 22 females, many galls. Holotype and paratype females 
and galls in the Kinsey collection. Paratype females and galls in the 
American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, and the U.S. National Museum. Labelled Alpine, Texas; galls 
December 14, 1919; Q. grisea; Kinsey collector. 
This is a very common cynipid in western Texas. I have 
New Mexico and Arizona material that represents at least two 
other varieties of this species, but none of this material war- 
rants description at this time. 
A few of the insects had emerged from the galls which I 
collected in West Texas in the middle of December (1919) < 
Most of the insects emerged soon after collecting. 
It is largely an academic question whether this insect should 
be considered a variety of Cynips mellea , a variety of Cynips 
nuhila, or a distinct species showing affinities to both mellea 
and nuhila. In general appearance the insect is more like 
nuhila, the smoky patches on the wing giving it a striking if 
superficial resemblance to that insect; and in many details of 
structure it shows more than subgeneric relation to nuhila . 
The galls, on the other hand, are so unlike those of nuhila, and 
so similar to those of mellea that our first decision was to con- 
sider this a Southwestern representative of mellea i There 
are, however, few cases of specific identities among the Cyni- 
pidae of more eastern and more western Texas. 
Cynips (Acraspis) mellea (Ashmead) 
agamic forms 
FEMALE. — Thorax usually of normal size, in two varieties re- 
duced in size; the mesonotum from almost smooth to finely rugose 
posteriorly, rougher anteriorly and laterally; parapsidal grooves rather 
