Druon pattoni (Basset, 1881) Cuesta-Porta & Melika & Nicholls & Stone & Pujade-Villar, 2022

Cuesta-Porta, Victor, Melika, George, Nicholls, James A., Stone, Graham N. & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2022, Re-establishment of the Nearctic oak cynipid gall wasp genus Druon Kinsey, 1937 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini), with description of five new species, Zootaxa 5132 (1), pp. 1-92 : 42-45

Druon pattoni (Basset, 1881) , comb. nov.

Figs. 113–124

Cynips pattoni Bassett, 1881: 98 , female, gall.

Andricus pattoni (Bassett) : Weld (1952a).

Type material. Type female No. 10502 deposited in Entomology Type Collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; not examined by the authors. Specimens in USNM: http://n 2t.net/ark:/65665/35ed8374feb00-49c4-8396-827c01baa048; examined by GM .

Additional material examined. One female “ USA, Florida, Brooksville Ridge, ex Q. stellata , coll. 1995.02.15, leg. G. Melika ”; 22 females “ USA, Florida, Hernando Co., Brooksville Ridge , ex Q. stellata , coll. 1995.02.15. leg. G. Melika ”; 1 female “ USA, Florida, Archbold Biological Station , ex Q. chapmanii, FL 662; coll. 2007.10.18., leg. G. Melika ”; 2 females “ USA, Texas, Jacksonville , ex Q. stellata , coll. 1919.11.20., leg. A. Kinsey ”; 2 females “ USA, Texas, Enchanted Rock , ex Q. stellata, TX 16; coll. 2008.12.23., leg. K. Lohse ” .

Diagnosis. This species belongs to the Druon group in which the head is rounded or trapezoid, rusty brown frontally and posteriorly, mesosoma light brown with notaulus complete or extending at least 4/5 length of mesoscutum and mesoscutal foveae present; these characters also occur in D. rusticum and D. receptum . Druon pattoni differs from both these species in having dense micropunctures on the metasoma ( Fig. 123 ).

Redescription. Asexual female ( Figs. 113–123 ). Head brown, posteriorly dark brown to black; antenna brown; pronotum brown, mesoscutum brown with black stripes; mesopleuron, mesoscutellum, metascutellum, propodeum dark brown to black; metasoma dark chestnut brown, darker dorsally; mandibles brown, palpi yellow; legs brown, with darker coxae and femora.

Head trapezoid, slightly transverse, alutaceous, with sparse setae, denser on lower face, vertex, occiput, postocciput; rounded, 1.4× as broad as high and slightly broader than mesosoma in frontal view; 2.2× as broad as long in dorsal view. Gena alutaceous, broadened behind eye in frontal view, slightly narrower than transverse diameter of eye in lateral view. Malar space alutaceous, with striae radiating from clypeus and reaching eye, malar sulcus absent. Eye 3.0× as high as length of malar space. Eyes very slightly converging ventrally or parallel. POL 2.5× as long as OOL, OOL 1.4× as long as diameter of lateral ocellus and nearly equal to LOL, all ocelli slightly ovate, of same size. Transfacial distance 1.1× as long as height of eye; toruli located slightly above halfway up head and frons shorter than height of lower face, diameter of antennal torulus 1.5× as long as distance between them, distance between torulus and eye 1.25× as long as diameter of torulus; lower face alutaceous, with dense white setae, with short delicate striae above malar space; slightly elevated median area delicately coriaceous, with few setae. Clypeus rectangular, slightly broader than high, smooth, glabrous, impressed, with long setae; ventrally rounded, not emarginate and without median incision; anterior tentorial pit large, rounded, distinct, epistomal sulcus distinct, clypeo-pleurostomal line well impressed. Frons uniformly alutaceous, without striae or setae, interocellar area alutaceous. Vertex, occiput and postocciput alutaceous, with long dense setae; postgena smooth, glabrous, with few setae; posterior tentorial pit large, elongated, area below impressed; occipital foramen as high as height of postgenal bridge; hypostomal carina emarginate, continuing into postgenal sulci which diverge strongly toward occipital foramen, postgenal bridge anteriorly slightly broader than occipital foramen. Antenna longer than head+mesosoma, with 12 flagellomeres (indistinct suture present on F12, partially dividing F12), pedicel slightly longer than broad; flagellomeres sequentially broadening slightly towards apical end of antenna; scape+pedicel as long as F1, F1 2.0× as long as pedicel and as long as F2; F2 1.3× as long as F3; F3=F4, F5=F6 and shorter than F4, F7–F11 nearly equal in length and shorter than F5; placodeal sensilla distinct on F4–F12, absent or indistinct on F1–F3.

Mesosoma 1.2× as long as high, with long white setae, setae denser along propleuron and on lateral propodeal area. Pronotum smooth, glabrous, with numerous delicate parallel striae extending onto entire pronotum laterally, with dense setae laterally; anterior rim of pronotum impressed, foveolate; propleuron smooth, glabrous, with dense setae. Mesoscutum uniformly and entirely reticulate, with long white setae along notauli and in anterior half, slightly longer than broad (greatest width measured across mesoscutum level with base of tegulae). Notaulus complete, converging strongly posteriorly, gradually broadening towards posterior end; at posterior end the distance between notauli shorter than distance between notaulus and side of mesoscutum, notaulus furrow smooth, glabrous; anterior parallel line in a form of impressed stripe with more delicate sculpture than rest of mesoscutum, extending to half of mesoscutum length; parapsidal line marked with broad smooth, glabrous area; median mesoscutal line absent; parascutal carina broad, smooth, reaching notaulus. Mesoscutellum nearly rounded, slightly longer than broad; disk of mesoscutellum uniformly dull rugose, overhanging metanotum, with sparse long setae; circumscutellar carina present, complete. Mesoscutellar foveae transverse, slightly broader than high, smooth, glabrous, divided by a narrow rugose elevated median carina. Mesopleuron entirely striato-reticulate, with delicate interrupted parallel striae, extending across mesopleuron, obliquely orientated from dorsoanterior to ventroposterior margins, with long white setae all over; mesopleural triangle smooth, glabrous, without striae, with long white setae; dorsal and lateral axillar areas alutaceous, glabrous, with setae; axillula with delicate parallel longitudinal striae; subaxillular bar smooth, glabrous, triangular, posteriorly higher than height of metanotal trough; metapleural sulcus reaching mesopleuron below half of its height, upper part of sulcus indistinct, sulcus in lower part separating smooth, glabrous area, with some setae. Metascutellum smooth, glabrous, slightly shorter than height of smooth, glabrous ventral impressed area; metanotal trough smooth, glabrous; central propodeal area smooth, glabrous, without rugae; lateral propodeal carinae strong, bent outwards in posterior 1/3 of propodeum height; lateral propodeal area smooth, glabrous, with long dense white setae. Nucha with numerous strong irregular rugae dorsally and laterally. Tarsal claws with acute basal lobe.

Fore wing longer than body, hyaline, with short dense cilia on margin, veins pale brown, radial cell open, 3.5× as long as broad; Rs and R1 nearly reaching wing margin; areolet small, triangular, closed, indistinct. Rs+M indistinct, even invisible in some specimens.

Metasoma slightly longer than head+mesosoma, slightly higher than long in lateral view; second metasomal tergum with numerous white long setae anterolaterally and along entire length of tergum ventrally, smooth, without micropunctures; all subsequent terga, including hypopygium, with dense and delicate micropunctures. Prominent part of ventral spine of hypopygium 3.5× as long as broad in ventral view. Body length 2.6–3.0 mm (n = 10).

Gall ( Fig. 124 ). Fluffy, orange-brown woolly leaf galls on the underside of the leaf midrib, containing clusters of larval cells oriented perpendicularly to the leaf surface. The cells are completely hidden by short, dense pubescence. The largest clusters often extend for more than half the length of the midrib. Found on young trees, most often on leaves near the apex of strongly growing shoots. The galls resemble in their woolly covering those of D. quercusflocci (Walsh) , but the latter are round rather than often elongate, with longer woolly hairs, and that species is only found on Q. alba .

Biology. Only the asexual generation is known, which induces galls on Q. chapmanii and Q. stellata (= Q. obtusiloba ) (Section Quercus , Series Stellatae ). Galls mature in October–November; adults emerge shortly afterwards under laboratory conditions or in February of the following year in the field.

Distribution. USA: Connecticut to Florida, Oklahoma, Texas ( Burks 1979).

Figures

FIGURES 113–118. Druon pattoni, comb. nov., asexual female. 113–116, head: 113, frontal view, 114, dorsal view, 115, lateral view, 116, posterior view. 117, antenna. 118, mesosoma and propleura, frontal view.

FIGURES 119–122. Druon pattoni, comb. nov., asexual female. 119, mesosoma, lateral view. 120, mesoscutum, dorsal view. 121, mesoscutellum, dorsal view, 122, metascutellum and propodeum, posterodorsal view.

FIGURES 123–124. Druon pattoni, comb. nov., asexual generation. 123, metasoma, female, lateral view. 124, galls.