''Diplolepis ignota'' is a species of gall wasp (Cynipidae).

Gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

s in which the larvae live and feed are formed on the leaves of several species of wild rose ( ''Rosa''). Individual galls are single-chambered and spherical, but multiple galls can coalesce into irregularly rounded galls.

Range

This species has been reported throughout most of the continental United States, and in Canada from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

Ecology

''Diplolepis ignota'' galls have been reported from ''

Rosa arkansana ''Rosa arkansana'', the prairie rose or wild prairie rose, is a species of rose native to a large area of central North America, between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan south to New Mexico, Texas and ...

'', ''R. blanda'', ''R. carolina'', ''R. virginiana'', and ''R. nitida''. Gall initiation typically occurs in August, and the galls remain attached to their hosts, with adults emerging from the galls the following summer. Inquilines and

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

s of the larvae include species of '' Periclistus'' (Cynipidae), '' Aprostocetus'' ( Eulophidae), '' Eurytoma'' (

Eurytomidae The Eurytomidae are a family within the superfamily Chalcidoidea. Unlike most chalcidoids, the larvae of many are phytophagous (feeding in stems, seeds, or galls), while others are more typical parasitoids, though even then the hosts are usually ...

), and '' Orthopelma'' ( Ichneumonidae).

Taxonomy

This species was first described as ''Rhodites ignota'' by Carl Robert Osten-Sacken in 1863. It was subsequently determined that the genus name ''Diplolepis'' had priority over ''Rhodites.'' Recent studies have shown that this species is very closely related to '' Diplolepis nebulosa'' and '' D. variabilis''.

References

Cynipidae Gall-inducing insects Insects described in 1863 Taxa named by Carl Robert Osten-Sacken Hymenoptera of North America {{Apocrita-stub