Periclistus Foerster , 1869

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

Periclistus Foerster, 1869

Type species.

Aylax caninae Hartig, 1840.

Diagnosis.

Mesoscutum generally coarsely sculptured, usually densely pubescent, and with abundant strong setigenous punctures. Notauli incomplete, indistinct at least in anterior third, and weaker throughout. Fore wing with marginal cell closed. Metasoma with syntergite in females but with all tergites free and articulating in males.

Note.

Periclistus contains seven North American species, all of which are inquilines of Diplolepis Geoffroy inducing galls on species of Rosa L., except for P. smilacis Ashmead (see treatment of Diastrophus Hartig). The diversity of this genus is not well understood; Ritchie (1984) treated ten Nearctic species in his unpublished thesis including six new species, but a recent DNA barcoding study ( Zhang et al. 2019) revealed the presence of two undescribed Nearctic species. More broadly, future study is needed to investigate host associations, especially given the presence of undescribed species.

North American species (Nastasi and Deans 2021):

1. Periclistus arefactus McCracken & Egbert, 1922

2. Periclistus californicus Ashmead, 1896

3. Periclistus obliquus Provancher, 1888

4. Periclistus piceus Fullaway, 1911

5. Periclistus pirata (Osten Sacken, 1863)

6. Periclistus semipiceus (Harris, 1841)

7. Periclistus smilacis Ashmead, 1896