Three Species of Andricus Hartig (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) Inducing Similar Galls in East Asia, with Description of a New Species and the Asexual Generation of A. Pseudocurvator, and Redescription of A. Moriokae

Andricus forni Pujade-Villar & Nicholls n. sp., a new species of oak gallwasp from China (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)

“…We also note that A. xishuangbannaus is not the only species among the three mentioned in this complex to have very delicate micropunctures from the third metasomal tergite onwards. This state is seemingly visible in A. moriokae (Ide et al, 2018: Fig. 33), albeit not reflected in the re-description, and micropunctures are also present in A. forni n. sp.…”

“…Galls induced by this new species are small, spherical and integral within the leaf lamina. This gall morphology is shared by many other sexual forms of Andricus in the Eastern Palaearctic (Pénzes et al, 2018;Ide et al, 2018): Andricus formosanus Tang & Melika, 2009; A. marmoratus Kovalev, 1965; A. moriokae Monzen, 1953;A. mukaigawae Mukaigawa, 1913;A.…”

“…sp., A. moriokae and A. xishuangbannaus is the most complex one within this group. The taxonomy of this complex has only been clarified relatively recently, with redescription of the type material of A. moriokae (from the oak host Q. serrata) by Ide et al (2018) and establishment of the new species A. xishuangbannaus from Q. griffithii by Tang et al (2012). We obtained multiple specimens (males and females; unlike A. xishuangbannaus which is known only from sexual females) from integral leaf galls collected from Q. serrata, attributable at first glance to A. moriokae which galls the same host oak.…”

“…quercicola Shinji, 1940;A. songshui Tang & Melika, 2011; A. wuhanensis Ide, Abe, Su & Zhu, 2018;and A. xishuangbannaus Melika & Tang, 2012. This similarity in gall morphology makes identification of these species difficult in the field, so we provide information, including a key, on the morphological diagnoses of this group of species, and discuss the validity of some species.…”

“…The cynipid gallwasp fauna of the Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental regions is poorly known (Abe et al, 2007;Tang et al, 2012). Only 15 valid species of Andricus are recognized from the Eastern Palaearctic, mostly from Japan and the Russian Far East (Pénzes et al, 2018;Ide et al, 2018;Pujade-Villar et al, 2020). In contrast, the number of Andricus species in the Western Palaearctic is greater, at about 80 (Melika, 2006;Tavakoli et al, 2008;Dinç et al, 2014;Mutun et al, 2014;Pujade-Villar et al, 2015 and others).…”