Pseudoneuroterus saliens Kollar, 1857

Shachar, Einat, Melika, George, Inbar, Moshe & Dorchin, Netta, 2018, The oak gall wasps of Israel (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini) - diversity, distribution and life history, Zootaxa 4521 (4), pp. 451-498 : 478

Pseudoneuroterus saliens Kollar, 1857

Host plants. Israel: Q. ithaburensis , Q. libani and Q. cerris . Elsewhere: several species from section Cerris.

Life history. The sexual generation forms multi-chambered galls in the first-year acorns of Q. ithaburensis , Q. libani and Q. cerris ( Fig. 57 ). Infected acorns stop developing, do not fall from the tree, and appear fresh and light green, with no other external evidence of the gall. Galls on all three oak species in Israel look the same. The asexual generation induces elliptical leaf galls, up to 5 mm long and 3 mm wide on Q. ithaburensis ( Fig. 58 ). These are single-chambered, rigid, light to dark brown, and are usually aggregated on the underside of the leaf but sometimes also on its upper side or on the leaf petiole.

Phenology. Galls of the sexual generation begin to develop in February and adults emerge from them in March. In higher elevations (e.g., En Zivan, Mt. Hermon), the galls appear in April and adults emerge in May, whereas in Europe they emerge in June-August. Galls of the asexual generation appear in Israel in August but no adults were reared from them in the present study due to extremely high parasitism rates. In Europe, adults emerge from these galls in April.

Distribution. Israel: Galls of both generations are widespread on Mt. Hermon at 1500 and 1780 m.a.s.l., Mt. Kahal, En Zivan, Yehudiyya, Mezar, Dan Valley, Hagoshrim, Hosha’aya, Alonim, Tiv’on and HaSharon Forest. Galls of the asexual generation were also found in Nahal Rakefet, Bet Keshet Forest, Pardes Hanna and Zikhron Ya'akov. Elsewhere: Widespread from the Iberian Peninsula to Iran.

Comments. No other species in Israel develops in first-year acorns and no species induces similar leaf galls on Q. ithaburensis , hence this species can be recognized with confidence. Sternlicht (1968b) attributed the galls of the sexual generation to Neuroterus sp. (his Fig. 56 ), and those of the asexual generation to Neuroterus saltans Giraud (his Fig. 43 ), a name that was later synonymized under Pseudoneuroterus saliens ( Melika et al. 2010) . In the same work he mentioned another thin-walled, yellow to brown ovoid gall that is attached to the leaf midrib or petiole (his Fig. 41 ) and referred to it as Neutoterus sp., but we ascribe this gall as well to P. saliens .

Figures

FIGURES 53–58. Galls on Quercus ithaburensis. 53. Pseudoneuroterus sp. 2, sexual generation; 54. Cerroneuroterus lanuginosus, sexual generation; 55. Pseudoneuroterus macropterus, sexual generation; 56. Pseudoneuroterus sp. 1, sexual generation; 57. Pseudoneuroterus saliens, sexual generation; 58. Pseudoneuroterus saliens, asexual generation.

FIGURES 41–46. Galls on Quercus ithaburensis. 41. Synophrus politus, sexual generation; 42. Synophrus olivieri sexual generation; 43. Andricus miriami, asexual generation; 44. Same, old gall; 45. Chilaspis israeli, sexual generation; 46. Dryocosmus mayri, sexual generation.