Andricus foecundatrix ( Hartig, 1840 )

Shachar, Einat, Melika, George, Inbar, Moshe & Dorchin, Netta, 2018, The oak gall wasps of Israel (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini) - diversity, distribution and life history, Zootaxa 4521 (4), pp. 451-498 : 463

Andricus foecundatrix ( Hartig, 1840)

Host plants. Israel: Q. boissieri . Elsewhere: several species from section Quercus .

Life history. Both the sexual and asexual generations are known, but in Israel only the galls of the asexual generation were found. These are brown, scaly, artichoke-like bud galls at the tips of branches, up to 13 mm in diameter and 20 mm long, ( Fig. 23 ) and are single chambered. Young galls are closed tightly but open as they mature to release a small, internal spherical chamber ( Fig. 24 ), which drops to the ground, where the insect completes its development. Old galls remain on the tree for several years and become brown ( Fig. 24 ). The sexual generation develops in small catkin galls, thin walled, up to 2 mm long, with a pointed tip, covered by dense, pale pubescence and surrounded by the anthers. The galls are initially green, turning pale brown when mature ( Adler 1881).

Phenology. Galls of the sexual generation begin to develop in April, mature in May, and adults emerge from them immediately. Adults of the asexual generation emerge in April of the following spring, but some remain in diapause in the leaf litter inside the expelled, spherical chamber of the gall for another year.

Distribution. Israel: Mt. Hermon 1500 and 1780 m.a.s.l., Mt. Kahal, Odem Forest, En Zivan, Allone HaBashan, Tel Hazeqa, Mt. Meron, Pa’ar cave, Mt. Addir, Nahal Rakefet. Elsewhere: a widespread species in the Western Palaearctic, from Morocco and Iberia to Great Britain and southern Scandinavia and eastwards to Iran.

Figures

FIGURES 23–28. Galls on Quercus boissieri. 23. Andricus foecundatrix, asexual generation, young galls; 24. Andricus foecundatrix, asexual generation, mature galls showing spherical inner chamber about to be ejected; 25. Andricus tomentosus asexual generation; 26. Andricus sp. 3, sexual generation; 27. Neuroterus quercsbaccarum, sexual generation (arrow); 28. Andricus sp. 2, sexual generation (arrows point to emergence holes).