Oak gall wasps and their parasites have served as important ecological and evolutionary models, especially in the Western Palearctic. However, the far higher species richness of North American oaks, oak gall wasps, and their associated parasites have presented roadblocks to parallel studies on this continent. In particular, foundational taxonomic and systematic work is necessary to develop this important system. Here, we study parasites in genus Torymus, important parasites of oak gall wasps across continents. We analyze a large collection of Torymus wasps reared from more dozens of North American oak gall types. We combine both DNA barcodes and morphological characters to develop putative species limits and host ranges for these parasites.
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