Synergus punctatus Gillette, 1896

Lobato-Vila, Irene, Equihua-Martínez, Armando, Estrada-Venegas, Edith G., Cibrián-Tovar, David, Barrera-Ruíz, Uriel M. & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2020, Synergus Hartig species group (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) with partially smooth mesopleurae from the New World, Zootaxa 4822 (1), pp. 1-38 : 29

Synergus punctatus Gillette, 1896

Synergus punctata Gillette, 1896 . Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 23: 90, 94. Type material: USNM [examined by the first author in Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017)].

Synergus punctatus: McCracken & Egbert (1922) . Stanford Univ., Pubs., Univ. Ser. Biol. Sci. 3 (1): 49.

Diagnosis. Synergus punctatus is morphologically close to S. gilletti , whose main differences have already been commented on (see the diagnosis of S. gilletti and the identification key).

Brief redescription. Female antenna 14-segmented, male antenna 15-segmented; F1 just slightly longer than F 2 in females and 1.4 times as long as F 2 in males; F1 of males curved, more expanded apically than basally; malar space 0.6 times as long as height of compound eye; frons and vertex coriaceous, without punctures; frontal carinae narrow and weak, not reaching lateral ocelli; mesoscutum with weak, dense, discontinuous transversal elements; notauli incomplete, faint in the anterior 1/3, wider posteriorly; scutellum wrinkled; scutellar foveae ovate to triangular, shallow, separated by a narrow carina; circumscutellar carina inconspicuous; mesopleurae basally and medially regularly striate, speculum smooth; metasoma not dorsodistally incised, slightly pointed and posteriorly with a wide band of micropunctures occupying almost the distal half of the metasoma; radial cell closed, 2.5 times as long as wide; tarsal claws with a basal tooth; in females, body and head black, except for a yellow and well-defined halo around the mouth, while in males, head yellow except for a black spot in the ocellar area. For more details on the morphology of this species, see Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017).

Distribution. USA. States of Colorado ( Gillette 1896) and California ( McCracken & Egbert 1922).

Biology. According to Gillette (1896) and McCracken & Egbert (1922), this species is associated with galls of Disholcaspis rubens (Gillette, 1893) , Disholcaspis eldoradensis (Beutenmüller, 1909) and Biorhiza eburnea (Bassett, 1890) (= Dryophanta glabra Gillette, 1894 ) (the latest considered incertae sedis after Pujade-Villar et al. (2018)), always reared from oaks of Quercus section, according to Burks (1979): Q. arizonica Sarg. , Q. dumosa Nutt. (= Q. durata ), Q. gambelii Nutt. , Q. garryana Dougl. ex Hook. , Q. lobata Née , Q. oblongifolia Torr. , Q. rugosa , Q. toumeyi Sarg. , Q. turbinella Greene and Q. undulata Torr.

Remarks. Synergus punctatus was examined and commented in Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017).