My new gall wasp species is official! 🥳

If you've been in any conversation with me in the last year, it probably included a fair amount of excitement that I was describing a new species of gall wasp with some colleagues. (Not to belittle their involvement in any way! It was a team effort. Now back to the bragging...) Today our paper has been formally published, so I'm going to brag a little bit longer! Plus, it includes some bonus content about other things I've been working on, too.

Discovery through iNaturalist: new species and new records of oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini) from Texas, USA.
Y. Miles Zhang, Kimberlie Sasan, Robert J. O'Kennon, Adam J. Kranz
July 20, 2022

Abstract: A new species of the genus Druon Kinsey, 1937, D. laceyi Zhang, Sasan & O’Kennon sp. nov. is described on host plant Quercus laceyi Small from central Texas. We also re-establish Andricus lustrans Beutenmüller, 1913 comb.rev., and transfer Striatoandricus aciculatus (Beutenmüller, 1909) comb. nov. from Andricus. Finally, we report a new state and host record for Druon gregori Melika, Nicholls & Stone, 2022. All observations were first shared on the social platform iNaturalist, highlighting the potential of cybertaxonomy in uncovering overlooked biodiversity.

Allow me to introduce you to... Druon laceyi

If you are interested in reading the full paper, PM me. Miles did a fantastic job of describing the wasp in words the rest of us can hardly understand.

Posted on 21 July, 2022 01:26 by kimberlietx