Burnettweldia washingtonensis ( Gillette, 1894 ) Melika & Pujade-Villar & Nicholls & Cuesta-Porta & Stone, 2021

Melika, George, Pujade-Villar, Juli, Nicholls, James A., Cuesta-Porta, Victor & Stone, Graham N., 2021, Three new Nearctic genera of oak cynipid gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini): Burnettweldia Pujade-Villar, Melika & Nicholls, Nichollsiella Melika, Pujade-Villar & Stone, Disholandricus Melika, Pujade-Villar & Nicholls; and re-establishment of the genus Paracraspis Weld, Zootaxa 4993 (1), pp. 1-81 : 28-31

Burnettweldia washingtonensis ( Gillette, 1894) , comb. nov.

Figs 77–88 , 96

Cynips washingtonensis Gillette, 1894: 235 , female, gall.

Disholcaspis washingtonensis (Gillette) : Weld 1951: 640.

Types examined. Holotype female labeled as „Wash. 1392”,”Type”, „AccNo 71950 USNM to be loaned only to ColoAgCol”, a red frame handwriting label „ Cynips washingtonensis Gill. ” in the USNM (http://n 2t.net/ark:/65665/ m335a86122-8276-453f-8f2b-218fce7de63b), examined by GM and CC-McE).

Material examined. Seven females from Kinsey collection, AMNH: 3 females on two pins labelled as „ Napa , Cal. Gall 3.18.20”, „ Quercus douglasii Kinsey Coll. ”, „ Cynips washingtonensis Kinsey det.”, 1 female „ Napa Co., Cal., 12SE Middletown, gall 10.16.27”, handwriting label „ Weldia washingtonensis det. Burnett ”; 2 females „Napa, Cal. Gall 10.16.27”, „ Quercus durata Kinsey Coll. ”, „ Cynips washingtonensis Kinsey det.”; 1 female „Corvallis, 7.15.28., „ Quercus garryana ”, „Beut. Coll. rec’d 1935”. Two females labelled as „ USA, California, Code 1187, coll. J. DeMartini ”. Specimen USNM-ENT-00893021 examined by CC-McE .

Diagnosis. Differs from other Burnettweldia species by the following characters: the entire body, antenna, legs are uniformly reddish brown to dark brown; the radial cell of the forewing around 4.0x as long as broad; the parascutal carina absent or present only laterally; the lateral propodeal carinae distinct only at the base, the central propodeal area without rugae; the lateral propodeal area with sparse white setae.

Description. Asexual female ( Figs 77–88 ). Head, mesosoma, metasoma, mouthparts, mandibles, antenna, legs reddish brown to dark brown; postgena with darker spot; black line between three ocelli.

Head reticulate, with dense white setae, less dense on frons, 2.0x as broad as long in dorsal view; 1.3x as broad as high and slightly narrower than mesosoma in frontal view. Gena reticulate, broadened behind eye in frontal view, slightly narrower than transverse diameter of eye in lateral view. Malar space reticulate, without striae and sulcus; eye 3.1x as high as length of malar space. Inner margins of eyes parallel. POL 2.0x as long as OOL; OOL 1.5x as long as diameter of lateral ocellus, as long as LOL; ocelli ovate, all three equal in size, in some specimens black stripe running between lateral and central ocelli. Transfacial distance as long as height of eye and 1.5x as long as height of lower face (distance between antennal rim and ventral margin of clypeus); toruli located at midheight of eye; diameter of antennal torulus 1.6x as long as distance between them, distance between torulus and eye margin slightly longer than diameter of torulus. Lower face reticulate, without striae, with elevated median reticulate area, with dense setae. Clypeus rectangular, flat, broader than high, reticulate, with deep anterior tentorial pits, deep epistomal sulcus and deep clypeo-pleurostomal line; ventrally rounded, emarginate, not incised medially. Frons and interocellar area reticulate; small impressed triangular area under central ocellus reticulate. Vertex, occiput uniformly reticulate. Postgena smooth, glabrous, with sparse white setae; postocciput smooth, glabrous, impressed around occipital foramen; posterior tentorial pits large, deep, elongate; oral foramen slightly shorter than height of postgenal bridge+occipital foramen; occipital foramen as high as height of postgenal bridge; hypostomal carina emarginate, continuing into indistinct postgenal sulci, gradually bent outwards; postgenal bridge smooth, glabrous, anteriorly diverging, as broad as width of occipital foramen. Antenna longer than head+mesosoma, with 12 flagellomeres (in some specimens indistinct suture present on F12 and thus antenna is 13 segmented), pedicel slightly longer than broad, F1 1.5x as long as scape+pedicel, 1.2x as long as F2, F2 1.2x as long as F3, F3 slightly longer than F4, F5 longer than F6, F7 to F11 nearly equal in length, F12 slightly longer than F11; placodeal sensilla on F5–F12.

Mesosoma as long as high in lateral view. Pronotum delicately coriaceous to reticulate, with dense white setae, without striae laterally, emarginate, foveolate along lateral edge; propleuron glabrous with very delicate inconspicuous longitudinal striae, with sparse white setae. Mesoscutum uniformly reticulate, with white setae and piliferous points, nearly as long as broad (width measured across base of tegulae). Notaulus incomplete, extending at least to half of mesoscutum length or slightly longer; broadest at most posterior end and gradually narrowing until anterior end, with smooth, glabrous bottom. Anterior parallel line indicated by broad smooth, glabrous stripe, extending to 1/3 of mesoscutum length. Parapsidal line slightly impressed, indicated by smooth, glabrous broad stripe, extending to half length of mesoscutum, reaching above tegula; parascutal carina narrow, deep, smooth, glabrous, reaching anterior edge of tegula. Median mesoscutal line absent or indicated by very short triangle. Transscutal articulation deep, distinct. Mesoscutellum nearly as long as broad, shorter than mesoscutum, disk uniformly coriaceous, with dense white setae, trapezoid; broadest part in posterior 2/3; carinate only laterally, slightly overhanging metanotum; mesoscutellar foveae in the form of a semi-lunar transverse depression, 2.0x as broad as high, with smooth, glabrous bottom, not divided by central carina or with an indistinct narrow carina present. Mesopleuron uniformly reticulate, with dense white setae; mesopleural triangle coriaceous, with dense white setae. Metapleural sulcus reaching mesopleuron slightly above half of its height, lower part of sulcus delimiting broad densely setose area, upper part of sulcus indistinct; dorsal and lateral axillar areas smooth, glabrous, with sparse setae; axillar carina broad, with longitudinal striae; subaxillular bar triangular, smooth, glabrous, at most posterior end higher than height of metanotal trough. Metascutellum reticulate, slightly broader than height of smooth, glabrous ventral impressed area; metanotal trough smooth, glabrous, with sparse white setae. Lateral propodeal carinae distinct only at base, starting on nucha and continuing into propodeum, beyond which they disappear, bent outwards in posterior third, central propodeal area smooth, glabrous, without rugae and setae, with central longitudinal carina starting from anterior end and extending to half the height of propodeum; lateral propodeal area delicately coriaceous to smooth, with sparse white setae; nucha short, smooth, glabrous dorsally, with net of rugae laterally. Tarsal claws with acute basal lobe.

Forewing slightly longer than body, with brown veins, margin with short dense cilia; radial cell 4.2x as long as broad, R1 and Rs not reaching wing margin; areolet triangular, well-delimited by distinct veins; Rs+M projection reaching basalis at mid-height.

Metasoma as long as or slightly longer than head+mesosoma, longer than high in lateral view, with dense white setae; second metasomal tergum extending to 2/3 of metasoma length in dorsal view, dorsally entirely delicately micropunctuate, laterally micropunctate to half its length, with dense white setae; all subsequent terga and hypopygium uniformly micropunctate, with dense white setae; prominent part of ventral spine of hypopygium short, as broad as long, with parallel sides; with dense long white setae, reaching far beyond apex of spine and forming a tuft. Body length 3.4–3.9 mm (n = 8).

Gall. ( Fig 96 ). Detachable monolocular stem gall, occuring singly or in groups on young stems, beige to dirty gray, solid, round, fuzzy, 8–10 mm wide, with mealy-granular surface texture and bumps, often with a short stalk at the base. The larval chamber in the center, oval, thick-walled. Old galls can remain on the trees for a year or more ( Burnett 1977, Russo 2006).

Biology. Galls mature in September-October; adults emerge in November. Galls on Q. douglasii , Q. dumosa , Q. garryana , Q. lobata ( Burks 1979) .

Distribution. USA: California (authors), Oregon, Washington ( Burks 1979); Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains ( Burnett 1977).

Figures

FIGURES 77–82. Burnettweldia washingtonensis, comb. nov., asexual female. 77–80, head: 77, frontal view, 78, dorsal view, 79, lateral view, 80, posterior view. 81, antenna. 82, mesosoma and propleura, frontal view.

FIGURES 83–86. Burnettweldia washingtonensis, comb. nov., asexual female. 83, mesosoma, lateral view. 84, mesoscutum, dorsal view. 85, mesoscutellum, dorsal view. 86, metascutellum and propodeum, posterodorsal view.

FIGURES 87–88. Burnettweldia washingtonensis, comb. nov., asexual female. 87–88, metasoma: 87, lateral view, 88, ventral view.

FIGURES 89–96. Burnettweldia asexual galls. 89–91, B. californicordazi, sp. nov.. 92, B. conalis, comb. nov.. 93, B. corallina, comb. nov.. 94–95, B. plumbella, comb. nov.. 96, B. washingtonensis, comb. nov.. Fig 95 courtesy of J. Gross.