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Tag Archives: Chalcis wasp

116/366 A gall and its parasites

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, trees

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Chalcis wasp, Oak apple gall, Oak apples, oak galls, oak tree, parasitic wasp, Torymidae

This must be the largest Oak apple gall I’ve ever seen – it was at least 1½ inches across, and it had attracted the interest of several small wasps, though these are not the wasps that created the gall in the first place.

200425 oak apple gall

I assumed that they were parasitic wasps about to use their long ovipositors to inject their own eggs into the gall, and it turns out my assumption was correct. Thanks to the British Plant Galls account on Twitter (@BritGalls), and to another Twitter user’s tweet, I’ve learnt that the tiny wasp in the photo below is a member of the Chalcis genus of wasps, probably one of the family of Torymidae. They are ectoparasites: their larvae feed on the larvae of the Oak apple gall wasp that created the gall in the first place.

200425 parasitic wasp

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sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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