Pseudochalcura gibbosa

Distribution
Canada, United States: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin.

Biology
Host ant:Camponotus novaeboracensis Pseudochalcura gibbosa (Provancher) oviposit masses of 1000–2000 eggs into leaf buds of various Ericaceae and Malvaceae (Cook 1905; Pierce and Morrill 1914; Clausen 1940; Heraty & Barber 1990). Eggs of this species overwinter in the leaf bud and likely fall to the ground as the buds expand and the bud scales drop in the spring. Simultaneous hatching of the egg mass upon stimulation by the host ant is seen as a means of both attracting ants (recruitment) and for gaining transport back to the ant brood as a food resource (Heraty and Barber 1990). First-instar planidial larvae of P. gibbosa initially attack larvae of Camponotus novaeboracensis (Fitch), with development completed by one to three individuals on a single host pupa (Wheeler 1910; Heraty and Barber 1990). The only other confi rmed host record is for P. nigrocyanea Ashmead from Brazil, for which adults were observed exiting from a nest of Camponotus and ovipositing into fl ower buds of an unidentifi ed Rosaceae (Heraty unpublished). Deposition of egg masses into flower buds is shared with Stilbula (Clausen 1940) and Substilbula (Heraty, unpublished), and is likely a plesiomorphic behavior for the Stilbula clade with oviposition into fruit regarded as a derived behavior (Heraty and Barber 1990; Torréns et al. 2008).