Zapatella Pujade-Villar & Melika, 2012

Melika, George, Nicholls, James A., Abrahamson, Warren G., Buss, Eileen A. & Stone, Graham N., 2021, New species of Nearctic oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini), Zootaxa 5084 (1), pp. 1-131 : 118

Zapatella Pujade-Villar & Melika, 2012

This genus was established by Pujade-Villar et al. (2012a) as an initial step in reorganising the taxonomy of Callirhytis sensu lato in the Nearctic. It was first described from two Neotropical species, Zapatella grahami Pujade-Villar & Melika, 2012 and Z. nievesaldreyi Melika & Pujade-Villar, 2012 , with a further five Nearctic species transferred from Callirhytis : Z. cryptica (Weld, 1922) , Z. herberti ( Weld, 1926) , Z. oblata (Weld, 1952) , Z. quercusmedullae ( Ashmead, 1885) and Z. quercusphellos ( Osten Sacken, 1861) ( Pujade-Villar et al. 2012a) . Since then, five more species have been described from Colombia: Z. inflata Pujade-Villar & Rodriguez, 2015 , Z. tuberosa Pujade-Villar & Caicedo, 2015 , Z. petiolata Pujade-Villar & Caicedo, 2017 , Z. cupulae Fernández-Garzón, Caicedo, Rodríguez & Pujade-Villar, 2017 and Z. migueli Pujade-Villar & Fernández-Garzón, 2017 ( Pujade-Villar et al. 2015b, 2017a; Fernandez-Garzon et al. 2017); one species from the USA: Z. davisae Buffington & Melika, 2016 ( Buffington et al. 2016); and one species from Mexico: Z. polytryposa Pujade-Villar & Fernández-Garzón ( Pujade-Villar et al. 2020a) . The main diagnostic characters of Zapatella are: the malar sulcus is absent; the mesosoma strongly arched, short, as long as high in lateral view; the mesoscutum with numerous fine short, interrupted transverse striae with numerous longitudinal anastomoses connecting the transverse striae and together forming a net-like, reticulate, irregular sculpture; the pronotum laterally delicately reticulate; the metascutellum rugoso-reticulate; the metanotal trough and the lateral area of the propodeum with dense white setae; dorsoposterior surface of the hind coxa with dense white setae; second metasomal tergite with felt-like dense ring of white setae, interrupted dorsally; the prominent part of the ventral spine of the hypopygium 6.0–8.5× as long as broad ( Pujade-Villar et al. 2012a). Herein we describe two new species from the Nearctic, Z. abrahamsoni Melika and Z. brooksvillei Melika & Abrahamson.