Clasping Twig Gall Wasp (Disholcaspis prehensa) galls develop in spring and exude sweet sap that attracts ants, which likely help protect the galls while the larvae develop in chambers at their base.

Red Cone Gall Wasps (Feron kingi) form galls on blue, valley, and Oregon oaks that drop to the ground in early fall. In February, parthenogenetic females emerge through the tips of the galls.

California Gall Wasp (Andricus quercuscalifornicus) is one of the largest cynipid wasps (5mm!) and induces the largest insect galls in the western U.S. Some females emerge between August and November, while others may remain in the gall for over a year before emerging.

12/07/2025 - Morning walk before it got too hot. It was still a bit warm for me. Everything really looked lovely in the sunshine though. Up and round the hill. Just me as Mrs Spaceways isn't back until later today. I took my butties and found a shady spot with a view down to the river to sit and have my lunch. Kestrel overhead and yellowhammers calling. It was a nice 4hrs out.

04/07/2025 - Evening walk to start the weekend. Round and back over the hill. My head needed a few hours of outside to shake the working week away.

Photo is a top gall I've not seen before. Red-pea Gall on the underneath of an oak leaf. It's a wasp gall. Lots of green aphid like things too.

The Coffeeberry Midrib Gall Moth (Sorhagenia nimbosus) forms galls along the midrib of coffeeberry leaves (Frangula californica), making the leaf appear folded or pinched as the tissue swells and thickens.

I did another “10 Minute Bioblitz” yesterday and discovered:

1. Ash Bullet Galls growing atop several ash leaflets

2. I like finding the first Bolete mushroom of the year, but something beat me to it!

3. Red-spotted Purple Butterfly hanging out on my deck

4. Pale Beauty Moth

Lots of galls have appeared on the local oak trees looking like droplets of red juice. I’m not very knowledgeable on galls. I think it’s a type of spangle gall, iNat suggests pea gall wasp made them (Cynips divisa).
#Wasps #Galls #UKNature

07/06/2025 - 3 galls and a shieldbug.

Morning walk along the quiet roads. The sunshine was nice. Made it back to the house just before the rain.

We spent a couple of hours looking for little things on leaves.

Lime leaf-stalk midge gall (Contarinia tiliarum)
Cotton-wool gall (wasp)
Oak curved-leaf gall (wasp)
Forest bug on a large giant hogweed leaf.

Best discovery at this weekend's yard sale day: I saw a bunch of tiny orange midges swarming around certain shrubs in people's yards. Looking closer, I saw they were molting from galls on the undersides of the leaves—often in bundles of three or four, leaving empty exuviae behind. Many were mating, presumably about to start the cycle all over again.

Just got around to looking it up. They are boxwood leaf miners, a kind of gall midge (family Cecidomyiidae). More information: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1291

31/05/2025 - Things we saw on our walk round the block.

Quiet on the back roads today. Weather was kind with a bit of sunshine. Lots of nice wild flowers, birds and bugs about.

The two photos are from the same wych elm tree.

A leaf roll gall - caused by elm-currant aphids.
Solider beetle (Cantharis livida dark form) - sitting on a well munched wych elm leaf.

It's gall season! Here are two different types of sagebrush galls, both formed by midges in the genus Rhopalomyia.

If you're a gall and iNaturalist fan, consider joining the Gall Week 2025 project, May 3-11. #inaturalist #galls #insects #wasps #flies #plants https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-may-2025

https://www.europesays.com/de/44969/ Die Geburtenrate ist in England und Wales auf einem historischen Tiefstand #AktuelleNachrichten #AktuelleNews #England #Fruchtbarkeit #galls #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Schlagzeilen #UK #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomOfGreatBritainAndNorthernIreland #VereinigtesKönigreich #VereinigtesKönigreichGroßbritannienUndNordirland #VereinigtesKönigreichVonGrossbritannienUndNordirland

Does Mastodon have a gall or gallwasps community? Maybe a Carpinus caroliana fan club? Because I have no idea who made this gall, or the hundreds of others just like it that were covering the branches of a mature American Hornbeam tree.

There are a few trees at work that have these growths all along their branches (not sure how long they’ve been there, or whether whatever’s causing them is contagious). At first I hoped they might be the product of bugs, but after some internet searching it seems more likely that they’re tumors caused by some sort of bacteria or fungus, in which case I imagine the trees themselves are silently crying out in pain. But at the same time, they’re kind of pretty? #NaturePhotography #trees #galls