Kokkocynips decidua ( Beutenmueller, 1913 ) Nieves-Aldrey & Nicholls & Tang & Melika & Stone & Pujade-Villar & Buffington & Maldonado & Medianero, 2021

Nieves-Aldrey, José Luis, Nicholls, James A., Tang, Chang-Ti, Melika, George, Stone, Graham N., Pujade-Villar, Juli, Buffington, Matthew, Maldonado, Yurixi & Medianero, Enrique, 2021, Re-description and systematic re-appraisal of the genus Kokkocynips Pujade-Villar & Melika, (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini), including new combinations of Nearctic species and the description of a new species from Panama, Zootaxa 4938 (2), pp. 205-232 : 214-218

Kokkocynips decidua ( Beutenmueller, 1913) n. comb. ( Figs. 10A , 11D )

Andricus decidua Beutenmueller, 1913 . Insecut. Inscit. Menst., 1: 131-132.

Dryocosmus deciduus (Beutenmueller) : Weld, 1926b. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 68: 41.

Material examined: holotype. Female. Black Mountains , NC, 1912. Beutenmuller, type, Andricus decidua type Beutm., Beut Coll rec’d 1935, USNM Type No. 52978, Dryocosmus deciduus (Beut) , USNMENT00802028, USNM .

Other material examined: USA. Maryland. ‘709Q on Q. rubra . 4 females. USNMENT01735091- USN- MENT01735094 ( USNM) . Illinois. Evanston. Cut out Nov 16, 1917. LH Weld Coll., 259. Andricus decidua WB Beutt., Beutt coll. Rec’d 1935. 1 female. USNMENT01735090 ( USNM) . Michigan. Through CV Riley. D. deciduus , det. Weld 1943. 1 female. USNMENT01735095 ( USNM) .

Gall: galls ( Fig. 11D ) are multilocular clusters of rounded or elongated swellings on the midribs of the leaves that contain from a few to about 40 oblong larval chambers, depending upon the size of the gall ( Beutenmueller, 1913).

Host plant: initially described from red oak ( Quercus rubra ) and black oak ( Q. velutina ), but Weld (1959) lists this species from most section Lobatae oaks in eastern North America.

Biology: only known from an asexual generation. The gall is fully-grown by September or October, when it falls to the ground.

Distribution: USA, from New England states southwards at least as far as North Carolina and westwards to the eastern Midwest.

Remarks: this species was transferred to Dryocosmus by Weld (1926b) based on the following morphological account: “mesoscutum smooth, parapsidal grooves complete, head sculptured, no malar groove, antennal segment 3 longer than 4 and claws simple”. These characters match those for Kokkocynips . However, Weld does not mention some other important diagnostic characters that make placement of this species within Dryocosmus problematic, such as the long hypopygial spine without long subapical setae and a sculptured mesopleuron, not smooth as in Dryocosmus ( Fig. 10A ). According to these morphological features and molecular evidence, this species should be included in Kokkocynips and we herewith formally transfer the species into this genus. The multi-locus phylogeny ( Fig. 1 ) places K. decidua as the sister taxon of the K. imbricariae , K. doctorrosae , K. difficilis complex.

Figures

FIG. 10. Female habitus of species of Kokkocynips. (A) Kokkocynips decidua (Beutenmueller) n. comb. (B) Kokkocynips doctorrosae Pujade-Villar. (C) Kokkocynips coxii (Bassett) n. comb. (D) Kokkocynips rileyi (Ashmead) n. comb. (E) Kokkocynips difficilis (Ashmead) n. comb. (F) Kokkocynips imbricariae (Ashmead) n. comb.

FIG. 11. Galls of species of Kokkocynips. (A) K. doctorrosae Pujade-Villar. (B) Kokkocynips imbricariae (Ashmead). (C) Kokkocynips coxii (Basset). (D) Kokkocynips decidua (Beutenmueller). (E) Kokkocynips difficilis (Ashmead). (F) Kokkocynips rileyi (Ashmead). (G) Kokkocynips attractans (Kinsey). (H) Kokkocynips panamensis n. sp.

FIG. 1. Majority-rule consensus tree of species sampled from across the Cynipini, based on a Bayesian analysis of a concatenation of three loci (cytochrome b, long-wavelength opsin, and the D2 region of the 28S rRNA gene). Black stars at nodes indicate ±95% posterior probability support; white stars indicate 70%-94% posterior probability support. The revised limits of the genus Kokkocynips are indicated by the grey shaded box.