Gall Wasp from Oak Apple on Scrub Oak, probably Quercus berberidifolia

Moved

… Adam Kranz, 5 January, 2024 - 8:50pm

Moved

Moved from California Gall Wasp.
Guess we'll just stick it back here then... Peter, you don't save your specimens, do you?

… Charley Eiseman, 9 February, 2013 - 6:13pm

Not Andricus quercuscalifornicus

Yes; I save my specimens; this one is clearly not Andricus quercuscalifornicus as pointed out by Joyce. In fact coincidentally this is the first of over 1000 specimens for which I now have DNA sequence ("barcode") information, and its sequence identifies it as a new bin within Cynipidae. As far as I can tell, Andricus quercuscalifornicus has not been sequenced.
I have reared many wasps from oak apples and they have all been parasitoids rather than inducers; however I recently acquired a large oak apple from Santa Cruz Island and it is producing very large cynipids that look a lot like quercuscalifornicus. I'll get its barcode, and I'll keep trying for the inducers from the mainland!

… Peter Bryant, 10 February, 2013 - 9:59am

Sequence information

Hi Peter,

Very cool to know you were sequencing barcodes from these back then. We're starting a COI barcoding project for cynipini and other gall inhabitants at a large scale this year and we'd love to pool all the existing data. Which genes did you use and is that data available now?

… Adam Kranz, 5 January, 2024 - 8:48pm

This does not look like any Andricus quercuscalifornicus wasps I've reared from galls -- I've reared many, many of these. The other photos currently in the guide are typical of the species; this one is not. Also, only females emerge from Andricus quercuscalifornicus "oak apples." This wasp, with the small abdomen, looks like a male. No males are known for this species, though it's possible that a bisexual generation (with a different type of gall) exists that has not yet been identified. A. quercuscalifornicus adults are among the largest cynipids in California at around 5mm, they are female, they're fairly uniformly light brown in color, and they have large abdomens. They're one of the best-known cynipids/galls in California.

My guess is that this is either an inquiline, or it emerged from a different gall.

… Joyce Gross, 9 February, 2013 - 5:51pm

Confirmation

I've been showing our images of reared cynipids to Dr. Zhiwei Liu, to make sure they're correctly identified and that none are inquilines. He said this one is probably correctly identified.

… Charley Eiseman, 12 February, 2012 - 6:06pm

Moved

Moved from Gall Wasps.

… Joyce Gross, 15 March, 2010 - 12:54pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Peter Bryant, 15 March, 2010 - 10:57am