Synergus chinensis Melika, Ács & Bechtold, 2004

Lobato-Vila, Irene, Kang, Minjoon, Roca-Cusachs, Marcos, Kim, Ilkwon, Jung, Sunghoon & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2020, Taxonomic assessment of the inquiline fauna (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae Synergini, Ceroptresini) reared from cynipid galls on oaks (Quercus spp.) from South Korea, Zootaxa 4860 (2), pp. 179-198 : 186-187

Synergus chinensis Melika, Ács & Bechtold, 2004

Synergus chinensis Melika, Ács & Bechtold in Melika et al. (2004) . Acta Zool. Acad. Sci. Hung. 50: 321. Type material: HNHM (holotype), paratypes in HNHM, IOZ-CAS and PHMBL according to Melika et al. (2004).

Material examined (36♂ & 79♀). Newly reared material deposited in UB with the following data: KOR: 4, Gang- won-do, Chuncheon-si, Geunhwa-dong ( South Korea), Ex. sexual galls of Andricus hakonensis , Q. mongolica , (11. v.2019) v.2019, Roca-Cusachs leg.: 2♂ & 1♀; KOR: 38, same as KOR: 4, but M. J. Kang leg.: 2♂ & 1♀; KOR: 6, Daejeon, Yuseong-gu, Daehak-ro ( South Korea), Ex. sexual galls of Andricus hakonensis , Q. mongolica , (15. v.2019) 16–31.v.2019, Roca-Cusachs leg.: 7♂ & 11♀; KOR 19: same as KOR: 6, but (16.v.2019) 16–31.v.2019: 3♂ & 1♀; KOR: 12, Daejeon, Chungnam National University campus ( South Korea), Ex. sexual galls of Andricus hakonensis , Q. mongolica , (08.v.2018) v.2018, Roca-Cusachs leg.: 5♂ & 9♀; KOR: 20, same as KOR: 12, but (05. v.2018) v.2018: 1♂ & 15♀; KOR: 29, same as KOR: 12 and 20, but (15.v.2019) 16–31.v.2019, M.J. Kang leg.: 2♂ & 4♀; KOR: 33, same as KOR: 29: 1♂; KOR: 37, same as KOR: 29 and 33: 3♂ & 3♀; KOR: 16, Guangju, Mudeungsan National Park ( South Korea), Ex. asexual galls of Andricus hakonensis , Q. aliena , (23.viii.2017), Roca-Cusachs leg.: 1♂; KOR: 34, Cheonhodae-ro, Gangdong-gu, Seoul ( South Korea), Ex. sexual galls of Andricus hakonensis , Q. aliena , (04.v.2019), J.M. Bae leg.: 1♀; KOR: 23, Daejeon, Chungnam National University campus ( South Korea), Ex. sexual galls of Andricus shongsui , Q. serrata , (10.v.2019), M.J. Kang leg.: 3♀; KOR: 2, Dongchon-ri, Hwacheon-eup ( South Korea), Ex. asexual galls of Plagiotrochus kunugiphagus , Q. acutissima , (26.vii.2018) vii.2018, Roca-Cusachs leg.: 4♂ & 29♀; KOR: 21, Guangju, Mudeungsan National Park (South Ko- rea), Ex. asexual galls of Plagiotrochus kunugiphagus , Quercus sp., (17.ix.2017), Roca-Cusachs leg.: 1♀; KOR: 5: Daejeon, Chungnam National University campus ( South Korea), Ex. asexual galls of Trichagalma serratae , Q. variabilis , (29.iii.2018) iv–v.2018, Roca-Cusachs leg.: 5♂.

Distribution. Mainland China (Beijing province) ( Melika et al. 2004); South Korea ( Abe et al. 2007; this paper) and Far Eastern Russia ( Kovalev 1965).

Biology. Reared from several unknown galls in acorns, buds and leaves on Quercus sp. ( Melika et al. 2004). Also, from asexual galls of Andricus hakonensis ( Abe et al. 2007) . The new material included in this paper was reared from sexual galls of Andricus hakonensis on Q. mongolica , from asexual and sexual galls of A. hakonensis on Q. aliena Blume , from sexual galls of A. songshui on Q. serrata , from asexual galls of Plagiotrochus kunugiphagus on Q. acutissima and an undetermined species of Quercus , and from asexual galls of Trichagalma serratae (Ashmead, 1904) on Q. variabilis .

Remarks. Kovalev (1965) mentioned S. gallaepomiformis (Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1832) for Far Eastern Russia, which was reared from asexual galls of Andricus hakonensis ; based on the adult description given by Kovalev, these specimens belong to S. chinensis ( Abe et al. 2007; Schwéger et al. 2015a).

Among the newly reared material collected from South Korea, we also studied 20 specimens (3♂ & 17♀) not included here, reared from galls of Andricus hakonensis on Q. mongolica , that are morphologically quite similar to S. chinensis , but that differ from the type material of this species by having a small size (females are about 1.5 mm long and males, from 1.0 to 1.3 mm long), the head about 2.0 times as wide as long in dorsal view, the F1 of males about 2.0 times as long as F2 and slightly expanded apically, the metasoma of females not dorsodistally incised and, in both sexes, the syntergite posterodorsally with scarce (almost inconspicuous) small micropunctures. Synergus chinensis has turned out to be a highly variable species throughout its range of distribution, so the above-mentioned specimens could be an extreme form within the morphological variability of this species, the morphological differences just being a consequence of their smaller size. However, we do not dismiss the possibility they are, in fact, an undescribed species, which should be further assessed through molecular analyses.