Amphibolips palmeri Basset 1890

Pascual, E., Maldonado-Lopez, Y., Medianero, E. & Oyama, K., 2012, Revision of the Amphibolips species of Mexico excluding the “ niger complex ” Kinsey (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae), with description of seven new species, Zootaxa 3545, pp. 1-40 : 7-8

Amphibolips palmeri Basset 1890

Amphibolips palmeri Basset 1890 . Tran. Am. Ent. Soc., 17:86

This species is cited as the largest known species of gall fly and “oak apple gall” ( Beutenmüller 1909). It was described from materials collected in Sierra Madre, Chihuahua, and Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. This species was apparently overlooked by Kinsey in his work addressing the Amphibolips of Mexico ( Kinsey 1937).

It was not possible to find the type material. However, we reproduce the description provided by Beutenmüller (1909), which is diagnostic with regard to the forewing colour pattern.

Wings dark, smoky brown, with a very dark brown cloud covering the areolet and the lower half of the radial area; beyond this and extending across the radial area to almost the posterior margin is a light colourless spot, and the anterior margin from the dark, broad, first cross-vein to a short distance beyond the second cross-vein is of the same light colour; tip of wing beyond the pale spot is dark smoky brown, as below this spot. Areolet very small but well defined.

Gall. Produced on twigs of an unidentified Quercus species. Spherical, with a wrinkly surface with a few scattered very short projections. Internally, the gall is of a spongy consistency. A central rounded larval cell is embedded in the soft internal tissue.

Comments. According to Melika et al. (2011), this species may be a synonym of A. dampfi . In our opinion, however, although the galls of the two species are similar, the descriptions of the forewing colour patterns of the two species are not in accordance. Thus, we maintain the status of A. palmeri as a good species.