Oak: a new gall

25 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, spring, trees

Tags

Andricus curvator, British galls, galls on Oak leaves, galls on oak trees, Oak gall wasps, oak galls, oak tree

With heavy cloud and occasional rain, Sunday was not a day for finding butterflies in the woodland. So, I decided to look more closely at Oak leaves to see what I might find, and that strategy paid off in spades as the next few days’ blog posts will show. First up, I found a gall I hadn’t seen before, which turns out to be the sexual generation of the gall wasp Andricus curvator.

210525 Andricus curvator (1)

When the adult wasps emerge in the spring from the agamic (asexual) generation galls, which are formed on buds in the autumn and fall to the ground to over-winter, they lay their eggs mostly on Oak leaves but also, sometimes, on twigs or catkins, so these galls can take several forms. The ones I found (and they were numerous) were all on leaves, causing malformations and swellings, as you can see from the photos above and below.

I was tempted to split a gall open to see what was inside but it turns out I didn’t have to, as something had nibbled away at one gall, revealing a second round gall inside (see below). The larvae within this inner gall will emerge in the autumn to lay its eggs on Oak buds, and so the process will continue.

210525 Andricus curvator (4)

238/366 Midge galls

25 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British galls, British insects, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, galls on wild carrot, Kiefferia pericarpiicola, midge gall, Wild carrot

I was looking around at the various wildflowers yesterday at Cosmeston, seeing what insects might be about, when I noticed these odd growths on some of the Wild carrot flower heads. I split one open with my finger nail and a miniscule orange blob fell out; turns out that was the larva of a midge with the long-winded name of Kiefferia pericarpiicola.

200825 Kiefferia pericarpiicola (1)

The galls start off green (below left), before turning pinkish and eventually brown. According to the Nature Spot website, these galls can be seen from late summer through to autumn, after which the larvae will leave the gall and drop down to the soil to pupate. The midge only occurs in southern parts of Britain at the moment – and I only found two previous records in the Welsh biodiversity database – but perhaps that will change as our climate continues to warm and the midge flies further afield. It’s also possible, of course, that this insect is under-recorded – it seems the midge itself is almost never seen, only its gall creations.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

137/366 Bedeguar gall wasp

16 Saturday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Bedeguar gall wasp, British galls, British wasps, Diplolepis rosae, gall on dog-rose, gall wasps, galls, Robin's pincushion

You might remember that, a few months ago, I posted about the (supposedly) empty galls of the Bedeguar gall wasp I’d found during a wet walk at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park (Empty pincushions, January 2020). A week or so after writing that post, I was back at Cosmeston and remembered to harvest one of the galls, which has ever since been sitting in a sealed jar on my kitchen windowsill.

Although the many holes in the gall made me think that all of its inhabitants had already hatched, I decided to wait and see if anything else appeared. Two days ago I noticed movement in the jar and, taking a closer look, found two different species of wasp had emerged.

200516 diplolepis rosae (1)

This is one of them, and I’m 99% certain this is the gall causer itself, the Bedeguar gall wasp, Diplolepis rosae, the offspring of the wasp that caused the gall to form in the first place. These wasps are so tiny – just 3-4 mm long – that most of us don’t usually see them so I was very pleased to have this one emerge from its gall.

200516 diplolepis rosae (2)

There is a bit of a story attached to the second wasp that emerged, and I am currently awaiting confirmation of its identity. As soon as I know more, I’ll write it up in a further post.

120/366 What’s in a gall?

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

British galls, British wasps, parasite of Urophora cardui, parasitic wasp, Thistle gall fly, Thistle gall fly gall, Urophora cardui

Back in October 2017, I blogged about a gall I’d found (More galls, part 2), the gall created by the Thistle gall fly (Urophora cardui). Here are two photos of those galls: on the left, the gall growing on the thistle (in fact, there are two galls – there’s a second one, still quite small, in the background to the left) and, on the right, a dried version, which I harvested from a thistle plant at the end of last year and which I’ve since been keeping at home in a jar.

According to my research, the Thistle gall flies don’t usually emerge until June but last week flying creatures began emerging from the gall. On closer examination, I found the empty pupae case (pictured below right) poking out of one of several holes in the gall.

So far, five little critters have hatched but these are not Thistle gall flies. They appear to be some kind of parasitic wasp, which I have not yet managed to identify – there are thousands of species of parasitic wasp and these are not the species that is normally considered the primary parasite of the Urophora cardui (which is a wasp called Eurytoma robusta).

Underside of wasp, photographed through glass of jar

I don’t know whether any Thistle gall fly larvae or pupae still survive within the gall or, indeed, whether anything else will yet emerge. So, for now, the gall remains in its jar, and I’ll post again if any other aliens appear.

This story has a sequel as all in this gall was not as it seemed – here’s a link to part 2, A Tale of two galls, May 2020.

One of the mystery wasps, sitting on the edge of the jar, as it was being released

31/366 Empty pincushions

31 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bedeguar gall wasp, British galls, Diplolepis rosae, gall on dog-rose, gall wasps, galls, Robin's pincushion

Robin’s pincushions are the amazing gall structures created on Dog roses by the larvae of Diplolepis rosae, the Bedeguar gall wasp.

200131 Robins pincushions (1)

I’ve seen the bright red galls many times during the summer months but I’ve not looked for them in the winter, so it was interesting today to find these and to see the very obvious holes where the adult wasps have hatched out. If it hadn’t been raining, I would have broken one off and brought it home for a closer look inside … maybe next week.

200131 Robins pincushions (2)

252/365 Alder tongue

09 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature, trees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alder, Alder tongue, British galls, Fungus-induced galls, galls, galls on Alder, Taphrina alni

While sneaking up on a juvenile Green woodpecker at Cosmeston, I spotted these lovely examples of Alder tongue (Taphrina alni).

190909 alder tongue (1)

I’ve covered these intriguing galls in a previous blog post so, just briefly, they’re the result of a fungus that chemically alters its host. One of Nature’s oddities!

190909 alder tongue (2)