Aulacideini

Nastasi, Louis F., Buffington, Matthew L., Davis, Charles K. & Deans, Andrew R., 2024, Key to the North American tribes and genera of herb, rose, bramble, and inquiline gall wasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipoidea, Cynipidae sensu lato), ZooKeys 1196, pp. 177-207 : 177

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1196.118460

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D10E0EA0-16D7-42B9-83D9-3871CBF06FE1

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/981653C3-7B17-5876-95D9-8081EAF7484C

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Aulacideini
status

 

Aulacideini

Figs 62-67 View Figures 62–67 , 87-89 View Figures 87–95

Diagnosis.

Pronotum tall and broad dorsomedially. Pronotal submedial pits distinct and well-impressed. Pronotal plate present, usually only distinct in anterior half of pronotum. Mesopleuron sculpture striate, reticulate, or striate-reticulate. Mesoscutellar foveae distinct. Fore wing with marginal cell entirely open or entirely closed, never partially open. Wings always hyaline, never tinted or with darkened areas. Metatarsal claws without basal lobe. Metasomal tergites 2 and 3 free and articulate, never with a syntergite.

Note.

The tribe Aulacideini is represented by approximately 90 species in ten genera worldwide ( Nieves-Aldrey 2022), three of which are known from North America ( Nastasi and Deans 2021): Antistrophus Walsh, 1869, Aulacidea Ashmead, 1897, and Liposthenes Förster, 1869. Monophyly of the tribe is rather well-established (e.g., Ronquist et al. 2015; Blaimer et al. 2020), but the generic taxonomy is somewhat unsettled ( Nieves-Aldrey 2022), and many North American species await description (Nastasi, pers. comm.). The number of introduced described species established in North America is uncertain (see the treatment of Aulacidea Ashmead below), but Nastasi and Deans (2021) reported 21 described species.

Globally, members of this tribe induce galls on five plant families ( Azmaz and Katılmış 2020; Buffington et al. 2020; Nieves-Aldrey 2022), but the described North American taxa are restricted to host plants in the Asteraceae (tribes Astereae , Chichorieae , and Heliantheae) and Lamiaceae ( Glechoma hederacea L.) ( Nastasi and Deans 2021). Galls induced by wasps of this tribe (Figs 87-89 View Figures 87–95 ) are most likely to yield adults when collected after host plants have senesced; adult wasps emerge in mid spring through late summer depending on the gall wasp species and collecting locality (Nastasi et al., in lit.). Many species induce cryptic galls that produce no externally discernable modification to the plant tissue; this phenomenon suggests that aulacideine herb gall wasps inducing cryptic galls are probably more diverse than currently known and have evaded detection due to their hidden galls.