Feron rucklei Melika, Nicholls & Stone, 2023

Cuesta-Porta, Victor, Melika, George, Nicholls, James A., Stone, Graham N. & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2023, Re-establishment of the Nearctic oak cynipid gall wasp genus Feron Kinsey, 1937 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini), including the description of six new species, Zootaxa 5366 (1), pp. 1-174 : 105-110

Feron rucklei Melika, Nicholls & Stone , sp. nov.

Figs 311–323

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:26E3C69D-CE69-47D1-89B7-134EBE136AED

Type material: HOLOTYPE. Asexual female “ Canada, British Columbia, Ruckle Provincial Park, leg. J. Nicholls, 2007.11.12. Code BC352, spBCl1; ex Quercus garryana ” . PARATYPES (9 asexual females) with the same labels as the holotype, however, with different collecting codes: BC349-1, BC350-2, BC352-1, BC354-1, BC355-1, BC356- 3. The female holotype is deposited at the USNM, 9 female paratypes at the PHDNRL .

Etymology. The species is named after the site it was found, Ruckle Provincial Park.

Diagnosis. Asexual females belong to the group of Feron species in which the body is never black; the head is rounded in frontal view with a slightly elevated median area of lower face which is smooth and shining; the gena at least slightly broadened behind the eye; ocelli are not elevated above the frons; inner margins of eyes are parallel or very slightly converging ventrally; the transfacial distance is longer than height of the eye; the antenna with 12 flagellomeres, sometimes suture between F11 and F12 incomplete; toruli are located above the mid-height of eyes; the eye is less than 3.0× as high as length of the malar space; lateral ocelli are smaller, OOL at least 2.5× as long as the diameter of the ocellus, if shorter then the head and mesosoma are not yellowish or light brown; the pronotum laterally with longitudinal carinae; the mesoscutum is alutaceous to coriaceous, rugose-reticulate, reticulate, without piliferous points; mesoscutellar foveae divided by a central carina; the mesopleuron is entirely smooth; as in F. bakkeri (asex), F. caepula (asex), F. scutellum (asex), and F. stellare (asex). Nevertheless, this species differs from F. caepula in the brown body colour sometimes with darker marks, and parallel eyes, while F. caepula is yellowish to light brown and has eyes converging strongly ventrally. Differs from F. bakkeri in having mesoscutellar foveae conspicuous and smooth, while they are inconspicuous and faintly rugose in F. bakkeri . Differs from F. scutellum in the coarsely rugose mesoscutellar disk, while in F. scutellum it is faintly reticulated and with a median elevated area. The most similar species is F. stellare but differs from it in having dark flagellomeres, the notaulus is complete and the third and subsequent metasomal terga with sparse micropunctures (more characters at couplet 47 in the key).

Description. Asexual female ( Figs 311–321 ). Head and antennae dark brown, maxillary and labial palpi light brown; mesosoma and metasoma reddish brown; legs light brown.

Head with sparse white setae, denser on lower face and clypeus, 1.2× as broad as high and slightly broader than mesosoma in frontal view,1.9x as broad as long from dorsal view. Gena alutaceous, very slightly broadened behind eye in frontal view, as broad as transverse diameter of eye in lateral view. Malar space alutaceous, glabrous, without striae; eye 2.4× as high as length of malar space. Inner margins of eyes slightly converging ventrally. POL 2.3× as long as OOL; OOL 1.8× as long as diameter of lateral ocellus and slightly shorter than LOL; all ocelli slightly ovate, of same size. Transfacial distance slightly longer than height of eye; diameter of antennal torulus 1.6× as long as distance between them, distance between torulus and eye 1.3× as long as diameter of torulus; lower face smooth, with dense white setae, without striae; slightly elevated median area smooth, glabrous, without setae. Clypeus smooth, glabrous, quadrangular, only slightly broader than high; ventrally rounded, not emarginate, without median incision and with dense long setae; anterior tentorial pit large, rounded, epistomal sulcus and clypeo-pleurostomal line broad, well impressed. Frons and interocellar area delicately coriaceous to reticulate, without striae, with a few short setae. Vertex, occiput delicately coriaceous to reticulate, with sparse white setae; postgena and postocciput smooth, with dense long setae; posterior tentorial pit large, ovate, area below impressed; occipital foramen as high as height of postgenal bridge; hypostomal carina emarginate, continuing into postgenal sulci which bend outwards; postgenal bridge anteriorly as broad as width of occipital foramen.Antenna longer than head+mesosoma, with 12 flagellomeres, with dense long white setae; pedicel 1.65× as long as broad, flagellomeres broadening towards apex; F1 longer than scape+pedicel, F1 2.0× as long as pedicel and slightly longer than F2; F2 1.2× as long as F3; F3=F4, subsequent flagellomeres shorter, nearly equal in length, F12 slightly longer than F11; placodeal sensilla on F4–F12.

Mesosoma slightly longer than high, with sparse short white setae. Pronotum smooth, glabrous, with delicate parallel rugae posterolaterally, with dense setae along anterior rim; propleuron smooth, glabrous. Mesoscutum alutaceous, with a few white setae along notaulus and denser setae anteriorly, between notauli; slightly longer than broad (greatest width measured across mesoscutum level with base of tegulae). Notaulus complete, deep, with smooth, glabrous bottom; posteriorly strongly converging, distance between notauli shorter than distance between notaulus and lateral side of mesoscutum; anterior parallel and parapsidal lines distinct, marked with smooth lines; median mesoscutal line absent; parascutal carina narrow, smooth, reaching notaulus. Mesoscutellum longer than broad, trapezoid, uniformly rugose, broader in posterior 1/3, posteriorly slightly rounded, overhanging metanotum. Mesoscutellar foveae separated by triangular elevated coriaceous central carina, nearly rounded to slightly ovate, with smooth, glabrous bottom. Mesopleuron and speculum uniformly smooth, with a few setae ventrally; mesopleural triangle alutaceous, glabrous, with a few setae; dorsal and lateral axillar areas smooth, with a few white short setae; subaxillular bar smooth, glabrous, with subparallel sides, posteriorly shorter than height of metanotal trough; metapleural sulcus reaching mesopleuron at mid height, upper part of sulcus indistinct. Metascutellum coriaceous, as high as height of smooth, glabrous ventral impressed area; metanotal trough smooth, with dense setae; central propodeal area smooth, glabrous, broad, lyre-shaped, without rugae; lateral propodeal carina bent strongly outwards at mid height; lateral propodeal area smooth, with long dense white setae. Nucha smooth, glabrous with numerous sulci dorsally and laterally. Tarsal claws toothed, with basal lobe.

Fore wing 1.5× as long as body, hyaline, margin with long dense cilia, veins pale yellow, radial cell open, 3.9× as long as broad; R1 and Rs nearly reaching wing margin; areolet triangular, indistinct, Rs+M inconspicuous, traceable along 1/3 of its length, its projection reaching basalis in lower half of its height.

Metasoma as long as head+mesosoma, higher than long in lateral view; 2nd metasomal tergum extending nearly to 2/3 of metasoma length in dorsal view, with numerous white setae anterolaterally, without micropunctures; subsequent terga with micropunctures, glabrous. Hypopygium with micropunctures, prominent part of ventral spine of hypopygium 5.6× as long as broad in ventral view, with short setae ventrally which do not extend beyond apex of spine.

Body length 2.0– 2.3 mm (n = 8).

Gall. ( Figs 322–323 ). Small spangle leaf gall, 5 mm across, somewhat star-shaped, flat against the leaf surface but with a central bump. Pale yellow with a darker centre when growing, becoming tan when mature. Typically multiple galls scattered across a single leaf. The same gall is depicted and described as an unknown species in Russo (2006, 2021; informally called the disk gall wasp) and Weld (1957, Fig. 174 ).

Biology. Only the asexual generation is known, which induces spangle leaf galls on Q. garryana (section Quercus , subsection Dumosae). Galls mature in November; adults emerge soon after under laboratory conditions.

This gall appears to be depicted in Evans (1972) in his Figure 15 ; those galls were also collected from Q. garryana in the same area (southern Vancouver Island). Evans experimentally matched these asexual galls with the sexual generation of Liodora dumosae , but mistakenly called them A. pattersonae (which has been matched to a different sexual form, A. pedicellatus , using DNA evidence elsewhere in this study). Hence we hypothesise that F. rucklei may be the alternate asexual form of F. dumosae , but further DNA evidence is required to test this suggestion.

Distribution. Canada, British Columbia, Ruckle Provincial Park. It is the first record of this genus for

Canada.

Figures

FIGURES 311–316. Feron rucklei, sp. nov., asexual female. 311–314, head: 311, frontal view, 312, posterior view, 313, dorsal view, 314, lateral view; 315, antenna. 316, fore wing.

FIGURES 317–320. Feron rucklei, sp. nov., asexual female. 317, mesosoma, lateral view. 318, mesoscutum, dorsal view. 319, mesoscutellum, dorsal view. 320, metascutellum and propodeum, posterodorsal view.

FIGURES 321–323. Feron rucklei, sp. nov., asexual generation. 321, asexual female, metasoma, lateral view. 322–323, galls: 322, young growing gall, 323, mature galls.

FIGURES 174–178. Feron discale, comb. nov., asexual female (reddish brown colour variation). 174–176, head: 174, frontal view, 175, dorsal view, 176, posterior view. 177, antenna. 178, fore wing.

FIGURES 13–18. Feron amphorus, comb. nov., asexual female. 13–16, head: 13, frontal view, 14, dorsal view, 15, lateral view, 16, posterior view. 17, antenna. 18, mesosoma and propleura, frontal view.