Cynipini

Cynipini
Cynips sp.
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Cynipidae
Subfamily: Cynipinae
Tribe: Cynipini
Leach, 1815

Cynipini is a tribe of gall wasps. These insects induce galls in plants of the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. They are known commonly as the oak gall wasps. It is the largest cynipid tribe, with about 936 to 1000 recognized species, most of which are associated with oaks. The tribe is mainly native to the Holarctic.

Cynipini wasps can act as ecosystem engineers. Their galls can become hosts of inquilines, and the wasps themselves are hosts to parasitoids.

Most of these wasps undergo cyclical parthenogenesis, sometimes reproducing sexually, and sometimes producing young without fertilization.

Genera

Gall induced on Pyrenean oak Quercus pyrenaica by Andricus kollari
Gall induced by Callirhytis quercuspunctata on oak
Amphibolips quercusinanis gall on oak