Ceroptres quercustuber (Fitch, 1859) incertae sedis

Cynips q. tuber Fitch, 1859 . Trans. N. Y. State Agr. Soc. 18: 806. Type material: presumably lost.

Ceroptres tuber (Fitch) Osten-Sacken, 1865 . Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila. 4: 370 [Unjustified emendation for specific name]. Ceroptres quercus-tuber (Fitch) Weld, 1951 . U. S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Monog. 2: 614.

Ceroptres quercustuber (Fitch) Burks in Krombein et al. 1979 . Smithson. Ins. Press: 1065.

Distribution. USA. State of New York, according to Burks (1979).

Biology. Reared from galls of Callirhytis clavula (Osten-Sacken, 1865) on Q. alba, according to Osten-Sacken (1865: 350).

Remarks. The type material of this species is presumably lost; it was originally deposited in USNM, but now the box of types is empty, and their current location is unknown (M. Buffington pers. comm.). Furthermore, Fitch’s original description (1859: 806) for Cynips q. tuber is very poor and thus insufficient to distinguish this species from the rest of Ceroptres, and even to establish whether it really belongs to Ceroptres . Osten-Sacken (1865: 370), who transferred the species to Ceroptres, says nothing new about its morphology. Hence, we here propose to place Ceroptres quercustuber (Fitch, 1859) as incertae sedis until the original material is found and studied.