The oak gallwasp Andricus coriarius is distributed across the Western Palaearctic from Morocco to Iran. It belongs to a clade of host-alternating Andricus species that requires host oaks in two sections of Quercus subgenus Quercus to complete its lifecycle, a requirement that has restricted the historic distribution and dispersal of members of this clade. Here we present nuclear and mitochondri...

The larvae of two cetoniine scarab beetles, Hoplopyga singularis (Gory and Percheron) from Brazil and Hologymnetis cinerea (Gory and Percheron) from Mexico, are described. The latter is the first description of a larva in this genus. Both of these species are included in a revised key to the larvae of New World Gymnetini (Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae), which now includes ten species in eight genera.

Euglossella, one of the most distinctive subgenera of orchid bees of the genus Euglossa, is composed of two characteristic assemblages of species, one of them comprising bees bearing the strongly metallic integument trademark of the genus (viridis species group), and the other consisting of bees with a brown integument shaded with metallic iridescence (decorata species group). Here we provide t...

Three major hypotheses have been advanced for the adaptive nature of plant galls: nutrition, enemyavoidance, and microenvironment. Of these, the microenvironment hypothesis has been frequently invoked, but rarely tested directly. We tested this hypothesis in a population of Andricus quercuscalifornicus (Bassett) (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) wasps inducing galls on Quercus lobata Née (Fagaceae) tree...