Kinsey: Gall Wasp Genus Cynips 
359 
Cynips (Acraspis) gemmula Bassett 
bisexual and agamic forms 
AGAMIC FEMALE. — Thorax much reduced and narrowed; the mes- 
onotum puncto-rugose, sparsely pubescent; parapsidal grooves fine, more 
or less incomplete; anterior parallel lines and median groove entirely 
absent; lateral lines nearly or entirely absent; scutellum only very 
finely rugose and hairy, moderately narrow and elongate, with a dis- 
tinctly pointed but not very sharp tip, not flattened, not depressed 
anteriorly, with a very narrow and poorly defined foveal groove; the 
ridge separating the scutellum from the rest of the mesonotum fine and 
indefinite; mesopleuron entirely punctate and hairy; abdomen enlarged, 
only moderately elongate, not produced dorsally, usually swollen cylin- 
dric, the second segment covering half of the whole surface; the abdo- 
men naked except for limited patches of hair on the second segment 
latero-anteriorly and for a few stray hairs near the ventral margins of 
the third and fourth segments; wings much reduced, very narrow and 
elongate, about 0.27 of the body in length, with hardly a trace of vena- 
tion; length 2.5 to 3.5 mm. 
BISEXUAL FEMALE AND MALE.— Known for only a single 
variety, so see the description for variety gemmula bisexual form 
gemmula. 
GALLS OF AGAMIC FORMS. — Moderately large, spherical, roughly 
faceted, with short spines. Usually monothalamous, often with two or 
three cells in variety cruenta; the normal galls strictly spherical, up to 
17.0 mm. in diameter; the surfaces closely set with numerous, bluntly 
cone-shaped projections which usually terminate in short, stiff, and 
blunt spines; the cones plus the spines usually not over 1.5 mm. in 
length; the young galls light greenish or yellow tinged with red, the 
older galls light buff yellow to brown and blackish. Internally compact 
crystalline, the walls very thick, the entire gall consequently solid ex- 
cept for the centrally placed larval cell which is up to 2.2 mm. in diameter 
and without a distinct cell wall. Attached to either the upper or under 
surfaces, usually to the mid-rib but sometimes on lateral veins, on leaves 
of chestnut oaks (known from Q. prinoides, Q. Michauxii, Q. Muhlen- 
bergii ) . 
GALL OF BISEXUAL FORMS.— A thin-walled, egg-shaped cell, 
occurring singly in the buds of the chestnut oaks. Known for only a 
single variety, so see the description for variety gemmula bisexual form 
gemmula. 
RANGE. — Apparently confined to the chestnut oaks in the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains; known from Massachusetts to 
Georgia, and Kansas. Figures 60-62. 
The best-known form of this species is prinoides, the agamic 
generation of variety gemmula. As with other species of 
Acraspis in the eastern United States, the young galls of the 
