Neuroterus species

Melika, George, Pujade-Villar, Juli, Abe, Yoshihisa, Tang, Chang-Ti, Nicholls, James, Wachi, Nakatada, Ide, Tatsuya, Yang, Man-Miao, Pénzes, Zsolt, Csóka, György & Stone, Graham N., 2010, 2470, Zootaxa 2470, pp. 1-79 : 24

Unplaced Neuroterus species

Neuroterus haasi Kieffer, 1904 . Only an asexual generation is known, which induces gregarious blister-like galls on very young shoots of Q. spicata Sm. in India (Bengal, Kurseong) ( Kieffer 1904; Dalla Torre & Kieffer 1910). According to the original description, female antennae with 13 flagellomeres, notauli absent, there is an indistinct suture, possibly transscutal articulation separating the mesoscutum from mesoscutellum; the mesoscutellum is rounded, smooth, shiny with transverse semilunar impression anteriorly, behind the mesoscutum. Thus, the species was assigned to Neuroterus ( Kieffer 1904) . However, the presence of an indistinct suture between the mesoscutum and mesoscutellum could also place the species in Dryocosmus . In current classification, Quercus spicata has been synonymized with Lithocarpus elegans (Blume) , and different described variations of this oak species are now attributed to different Lithocarpus species ( Govaerts & Frodin 1998). Recently, we obtained new undescribed species of Dryocosmus and Neuroterus from Taiwan which induce galls on Lithocarpus , Castanopsis and the subgenus Cyclobalanopsis of Quercus (coll. by Chang-Ti Chang). Whether Neuroterus haasi and these new species belong to Drycosmus and Neuroterus respectively or form different monophyletic entities must be examined in detail, including molecular sequence analysis. We have not been able to find the type specimens of N. haasi and it is possible that the types are lost and the status of N. haasi will remain uncertain until the species recollected and a neotype designated.