Ceroptres inermis ( Walsh, 1864 ), 1865

Lobato-Vila, Irene & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2019, Revision of world Ceroptresini (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) with the description of a new genus and five new species, Zootaxa 4685 (1), pp. 1-67 : 60

Ceroptres inermis ( Walsh, 1864) nom. dub.

Amblynotus inermis Walsh, 1864 . Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila. 2: 498. Type material: presumably lost.

Ceroptres inermis (Walsh) Osten-Sacken, 1865 . Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila. 4: 369.

Distribution. USA. State of Illinois ( Walsh 1864; Burks 1979).

Biology. Walsh (1864: 498) states that C. inermis was reared “… from the gall Q. pilulae n. sp. ”, but Osten- Sacken (1865: 369) mentions that he did not know this species. Burks (1979: 1064) concluded that the host is Cincticornia pilulae Beutenmüller, 1892 ( Diptera : Cecidomyidae ), now belonging to the genus Polystepha Kieffer, 1897 . According to Pénzes et al. (2012), this species was obtained from galls on oaks of the Lobatae section.

Remarks. The type material of this species is presumably lost; the location of the types is unknown according to Ritchie (1984) and they are neither deposited in ANSP (online database consulted), CAS (R. Zuparko pers. comm.), MCZ (Charles W. Farnum pers. comm.; some other Walsh types are deposited in this institution) nor USNM (collection examined). Neither the original description ( Walsh, 1864: 498) nor the notes provided by Osten-Sacken (1865: 369) give distinctive morphological traits to distinguish this species from the rest of Ceroptres ; however, we do not doubt it belongs to Ceroptres since in the original description it is stated that Amblynotus inermis presents the following morphological traits: antennae 12-segmented in females and 15-segmented in males; mesopleuron smooth; second and third metasomal segments separated in both sexes; second metasomal segment with appressed pubescence. Hence, we here propose placement of Ceroptres inermis ( Walsh, 1864) as nomen dubium until the original material is found and studied.