Callirhytis operator sex.gen.

Quercus cinerea [incana], ilicifolia, imbricaria, myrtifolia, palustris, phellos, rubra, texana [buckleyi], velutina
Flower galls
A woolly white gall on the staminate flowers in May-June.

[Photo caption]
On Q rubra. Also on Q coccinea, velutina, imbricaria, ilicifolia, falcata, texana [buckleyi]. Galls turn brown about the time the adults emerge June 11-30 (DC); July 10 (Nova Scotia). On June 26 adults were ovipositing in last year's acorns of Q velutina then about 1/4 of an inch in dia.

"Like Callirhytis operator sex.gen."

Quercus falcata
Flower galls
Like Callirhytis operator sex.gen. Seen in AR.

Quercus laurifolia, marilandica
Flower galls
Callirhytis sp. Like Callirhytis operator sex.gen.

Andricus operator form operator

Cynips quercus operator
Cynips operator
Andricus operator
Callirhytis operator
Callirhytis quercus-operator

Galls. — Large, compact masses (Fig. 32) of wool containing seed-like larval cells. The clusters are irregular in shape, often oval, 4X5.5 cm., more or less, in dimensions, the hairs at first crisp, succulent, greenish, white, or rose-tinged, some-times deep red, becoming yellowish brown with age, finally weathering bluish gray or black and drying into a shrivelled mass. Within the wool, scattered or in small clusters, are the larval cells, hard and rather thick-walled, oval, about 1.5X3 mm., distributed mostly but not entirely toward the center of the gall. On and involving the young terminal stems, new clusters of leaves, and especially the flower clusters of Quercus coccinea, Q. ilicifolia, Q. marylandica, Q. palustris, Q. rubra, Q. velutina, and likely related oaks.

Range: Ontario, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DC, IL, New Brunswick

The gall of this form is a very abundant early-spring gall in scrub- oak country, appearing with the flowers of the oaks about the middle of May and growing rapidly. It should not be gathered for breeding until after the first of June, for it is succulent when first formed and dries and dies unless nearly mature when gathered. The woolly hairs, Bassett has pointed out, are merely a much modified leaf pubescence. The galls, after the emergence of the adults, become much the worse for weathering and by autumn only fragments of the wool remain upon the trees. The galls often bring great numbers of the insects to maturity; from three galls I obtained 578 adults which emerged from June 9 to June 30. The sexes are produced in about equal numbers. The females, as Bassett discovered, deposit the eggs in the acorns of the scrub-oaks, inserting the ovipositor between the nut and the cup of the very small, young acorns. The gall produced is the form operatola.

Callirhytis operator OS
Bi-sexual form, operator Bass.

Gall, large woolly.

On Q rubra, coccinea, nigra, and ilicifolia

Andricus operator

Hosts: Quercus marilandica, coccinea, ilicifolia, velutina, schneckii [shumardii]

GALL. — An oval larval cell, mostly inseparable from and occupying most of a thin-walled, seed-like capsule. These capsules woolly, clustered in the bisexual generation, naked in the agamic generation, producing the following forms of galls; on eastern American black oaks.

Bisexual Generation: Large, compact masses of wool, irregular in shape, often oval, up to 40. by 55. mm. in dimensions; the hairs at first crisp, succulent; greenish, white, or rose-tinged, sometimes deep red; becoming straw color or golden brown upon aging, finally weathering bluish gray or black, shrivelling considerably. Within the wool, scattered or in small clusters, mostly toward the center of the gall, are the seed-like capsules with the closely imbedded larval cells, each capsule hard, oval, about 1.5 by 3.0 mm., sometimes 150 or more cells in a gall. On or involving young stems, new clusters of leaves, and especially the flower clusters.

RANGE. — Ottawa to Virginia, Texas, and Illinois. Probably thruout more eastern North America wherever black oaks occur.

[Kinsey goes on to describe several varieties that differ by host, range, and gall morphology; see paper for details]

Callirhytis quercusoperator (Osten Sacken 1861)

Hosts: Quercus inopina, myrtifolia

[Sexual generation catkin gall found in Florida in the spring.]