Synergus gilletti Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017

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 : 19

Synergus gilletti Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017

Synergus gilletti Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017 . Zoological Studies 56 (36): 9. Type material: UB (holotype), paratypes in UB, USNM and AMNH [examined by the first author in Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017)].

Diagnosis. Synergus gilletti is morphologically close to S. punctatus Gillette, 1896 (see below), but differs from this species mainly by having F1 just slightly longer than F 2 in both sexes (F1 just slightly longer than F 2 in females and 1.4 times as long as F 2 in males of S. punctatus ), notauli complete (incomplete in S. punctatus ) and the metasoma with an incomplete band of micropunctures occupying 1/3 of its length (with a complete band occupying the distal half in S. punctatus ) (see the description of both species and the identification key).

Brief redescription. Female antenna 14-segmented, male antenna 15-segmented; F1 just slightly longer than F2; F1 of males curved and expanded distally; malar space 0.6 times as long as height of compound eye; frons and vertex finely coriaceous, without punctures or just with scarce small piliferous punctures; frontal carinae weak and narrow, not reaching lateral ocelli; mesoscutum imbricated with weak, discontinuous transversal elements; notauli complete and visible in their whole length, less impressed anteriorly and interrupted by transversal elements; scutellum wrinkled and scutellar foveae ovate to subtriangular, shallow, weakly sculptured, separated by a narrow carina; circumscutellar carina inconspicuous; mesopleurae basally and medially regularly striate, speculum smooth; metasoma not dorsodistally incised, slightly pointed and with an incomplete band of micropunctures extending posteriorly somewhat more than 1/3 of the syntergite length; radial cell closed, 2.5 times as long as wide; tarsal claws with a basal tooth; both females and males completely black, except for the surface surrounding the oral fovea, which is brownish to chestnut. For more details on the morphology of this species, see Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017).

Distribution. Mexico. State of Zacatecas ( Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar 2017).

Biology. Reared from woolly galls induced by an undetermined species of Andricus on leaves of Quercus laeta ( Quercus section), and from galls induced by undetermined species of Atrusca on Q. laeta and Q. rugosa Née ( Quercus section) ( Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar 2017).