#gall wasp

[hawkpartys]

[apocrital]

You would not believe your eyes

If ten million wasps arise

Out of their galls on the oak tree leaves

[waspdaily]

Today's wasp of the day is the mossy rose gall wasp (Diplolepis rosae)

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Also known as the rose bedeguar gall wasp, moss gall wasp, or robin's pincushion. Some of these names actually have their roots in folklore. These odd pompoms that can suddenly appear on wild roses were assumed to be the work of woodland faefolk. Knowing that they're actually made by tiny wasps that manipulate the plant into forming a structure that houses and feeds its young honestly still sounds like fairy business though.

While typically the galls wasps make don't harm their host plant, there is a tendency for mossy rose galls to occur in higher number on weak or young plants and so the sight of these fuzzies can be considered a warning sign.

[taro-pdf]

[ID: digital scientific illustration with white text that reads "california gall wasp, Andricus quercuscalifornicus. The drawings are of a round redish-orange wasp and a large dusty pink gall growing from an oak twig. end ID.]

These guys are TINY. like less then 1 cm, and sometimes less than half a cm! But they make galls many times their size for their young to live in. What a good parent!

[vintagewildlife]

Oak apple gall By: Jane Burton From: The Mating Game 1976

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

california gall wasp, such a little babyyyyy

Another teeny wasp, hooray!

Have you seen the California gall wasp (Andricus quercuscalifornicus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onMar 1

This species primarily induces galls on white oaks, especially the valley oak (Quercus lobata).

[onenicebugperday]

the fall leaves out back are COVERED with these unusual children, which I think might be gall wasps maybe? absolutely everywhere. on everything. bountiful baby harvest. I need everyone to witness them.

(after taking this photo I walked around and threw them all off the deck so they won't get stepped on lol.)

Thank you for letting me know your location via IM! These are indeed gall wasps, most likely Belonocnema kinseyi. They use live oak trees as hosts and are native in your area!

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 2: Galls!

The ocular jasani gall wasp makes galls on the stems of an annual plant full of needles, making them hard to reach without getting pricked by the leaves.

The buoy mutabuta gall wasp lays its eggs on the leaves of a small shrub that grows near rivers. The biggest gall that actually touches the leaf has a larvae inside, but the small floating ones are decoys to protect the larva from predators or hyperparasitoids.

The lichen agasur galls have long tendrils that mimic a lichen that often grows alongside them on the branches of the tree whose bark they've been laid in.

The bridge borolsa gall wasp makes its galls on the large leaves of boreal trees. Due to their bright colors, they're sometimes gathered and used as beads or small jewels.

The salt sijaga gall wasp goes for the young, tender branches of a tree that grows in brackish swamps. The salt gathers in the gall formation, protecting them from mold and predators due to being unpalatable.