The oak gall wasps of Israel (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini) - diversity, distribution and life history Shachar, Einat Melika, George Inbar, Moshe Dorchin, Netta Zootaxa 2018 2018-11-16 4521 4 451 498 (Hartig, 1843) Hartig 1843 [151,712,402,428] Insecta Cynipidae Pseudoneuroterus GBIF Animalia Hymenoptera 27 478 Arthropoda species macropterus   Host plants. Israel:  Q. ithaburensis.Elsewhere: Several species from section Cerris.  Life history.Prior to the present study, only the asexual generation of this species was known ( Sternlicht 1968b) and the association between it and its sexual generation is established here for the first time. Galls of the asexual generation are multi-chambered stem swellings, 5–60 mmin length, of the same color of the branch ( Fig. 12in Sternlicht 1968b). The sexual generation develops in small, conical bud galls, up to 2 mmin length, inside the basal part of a bud scale ( Fig. 55). The single-chambered gall is green when young, light brown when mature, with thin and delicate walls but harder than the scale itself. The larva occupies the entire volume of the gall.   Phenology.Galls of the sexual generation were found in early February and adults emerged from them later that month. Galls of the asexual generation become evident in summer but no adults were reared from them in the present study. Sternlicht (1968b)reported to have reared adults in February-March or in September-October of the following year.   Distribution. Israel: Sexual generation: Hosha’aya, Alonim, Tiv’on, Hasharon Forest. Asexual generation: Rare, observed only once in the present study in Yehudiyya. Also recorded from Tiv’on (as  Neuroterus macropterus) ( Sternlicht 1968b). Elsewhere: Widespread and locally common from Central Europe to Iran.   Comments. Sternlicht (1968b)attributed the galls of this species to the sexual generation of  Neuroterus aprilinusMayr(his Figs 21–22), a species that was later synonymized under  Neuroterus politus( Pujade-Villar & Ros-Farré 2001). However, the galls we found are ovoid and thin-walled whereas those of  N. politusare thickwalled and pointed apically, and our molecular data suggest that this species does not belong in  Neuroterus. Instead, these data suggest that adults reared from the sexual generation galls are genetically identical to those of  Pseudoneuroterus macropterus(based on sequences in Genbank), and thus represent the sexual generation of that species. Therefore,  P. macropterusis now known from galls and adults of both generations.