Kinsey: Gall Wasp Genus Cynips 413 
and this is insufficient data to show whether the variety ranges 
on the swamp white oak, Q. bicolor , thruout the Atlantic 
Coastal Plain area, or along the Gulf into eastern Texas, or is 
confined to Florida. 
Ashmead described the galls as precisely similar to those 
of “erinacei,” meaning a spiny form of this species. The gall 
described and figured by Beutenmiiller, perhaps from the type 
material in the Philadelphia Academy, is intermediate between 
the naked and spiny forms. There are no galls among the 
types in the National Museum. 
Ashmead bred adults in November. He expressed surprise 
that he had found this species on Q. bicolor without finding it 
on Q. Prinus, for, he says, Q. bicolor “is considered by many 
botanists only a variety of Quercus prinus; galls found on 
one are very apt to be found on both, and insects are good 
botanists.” As a matter of fact, these insects are better 
judges of the relationships of the oaks than anyone who would 
consider Q. bicolor a variety of Q. Prinus. Long ago in the 
history of our insects there was a division on this very ques- 
tion, and Cynips gemmula and its varieties claimed the ex- 
clusive rights to Quercus Prinus , prinoides, Michauxii, and 
Miihlenbergii, while Cynips pezomachoides accepted Q. alba 
and bicolor. Modern botanists acknowledge this to be the 
correct grouping of these oaks (cf. Trelease, 1924, Nat. Acad. 
Sci. Mem. 20:102-111). Echinoides, as a variety of pezoma- 
choides, is not departing from the ancestral traditions when 
it takes up its dwelling on Q. bicolor. 
Cynips (Acraspis) hirta Bassett 
agamic forms 
FEMALE. — Thorax much reduced and narrowed; the mesonotum 
entirely rugoso-punctate and hairy; parapsidal grooves poorly indicated, 
short, discontinuous anteriorly; anterior parallel lines and median groove 
entirely absent; lateral lines present or absent; scutellum irregularly 
rugoso-punctate and hairy, narrow and elongate, the tip moderately 
pointed, anteriorly depressed; the ridge separating the scutellum from 
the rest of the mesonotum fine and indefinite; mesopleuron mostly or 
entirely punctate and hairy, in some varieties with a more naked and 
shining area; abdomen enlarged, compressed, elongate, but not much 
produced dorsally, the second segment covering less than half of the 
abdomen, the sides of segments 2 to 5 entirely tho not densely hairy; 
