Let’s look for more spring oak galls this year!
Hi everyone!
Bisexual generation (sexgen) galls of most oak gall wasps are underobserved, so let’s keep our eye out for them this spring! The key is to look on the same trees you’ve seen lots of summer/fall galls, when new buds/leaves/flowers come out. If you’re interested, feel free to share this post or tag others in the comments.
@megachile posted this wonderfully detailed info on Forum (https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/spring-oak-gall-wasp-hunting/38630) so I highly recommend reading it to get ready.
I also wanted to share some examples of my own interest for our region, California.
Andricus kingi (Red Cone GW)
Common host: Quercus lobata (Valley Oak)
Red Cone galls are so common, yet there’s no observation of their sexgen galls to this day! This really blows my mind because I’ve seen some trees covered with thousands of Red Cones in summer. So I plan to revisit such trees this spring, and hope you can too. (The link above also has more tips how to look for these.)
Cynips douglasii (Spined Turban GW)
Common host: Quercus lobata (Valley Oak), Quercus douglasii (Blue Oak)
Another common galls in summer, but sexgen galls are still rarely observed. Here’s what they look like:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=469443&verifiable=any&field:Gall%20generation=bisexual
Andricus gigas (Saucer GW)
Common host: Quercus douglasii (Blue Oak)
Apparently there are many look-alike of this sexgen galls so we definitely need more observations. Again, look on the same trees where you’ve seen lots of Saucer galls in summer. For now, we don’t have much info other than this: https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1487
Andricus pattersonae (Plate GW)
Common host: Quercus douglasii (Blue Oak)
Similar to A. gigas, so look on the same trees where you’ve seen lots of Plate galls in summer. These tiny conical galls could also be sexgen galls of many other species but we don’t have enough data to compare at this moment:
https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1558
Cynips quercusechinus (Urchin GW)
Common host: Quercus douglasii (Blue Oak)
Another species with no sexgen gall observations, so who wants to be the first?
https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1725
Heteroecus pacificus (Beaked Spindle GW)
Common host: Quercus chrysolepis (Canyon Live Oak)
This one has a little more photo references so shouldn’t be hard to find, should it?
https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1961
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=123507&verifiable=any&field:Gall%20generation=bisexual
https://joycegross.com/images.php?search=2&taxon=Heteroecus+pacificus&ordr=
Unknown Mini-Leaf GW
Common host: Quercus lobata (Valley Oak)
Last year, I found a tree with lots of “Mini-Leaf” galls (https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1944) in spring. Then in summer, I revisited the same tree and found lots of Rosette galls (Andricus wiltzae):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/119291719
It may be my wishful thinking that Mini-Leaf is the sexgen of Rosette (because they are both leafy green :)) but as you can read in the discussion above, I’m not confident with rearing adults so if anyone wants to try rearing adults from Mini-Leaf galls this spring, it’d be great!
This is just a tip of iceberg so if you know a spot with any particular galls abundant in summer, look for sexgen versions of them in this spring!
Noriko
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Feel free to add others!
Great idea, Noriko!
For those looking for more common galls, here are the gall observations posted to Galls of California in February and March of past years. For spring galls that are common in the SF Bay Area, check out Merav's pamphlet at https://www.bioblitz.club/_files/ugd/4f81b8_ff3e1f7f1ffa4d989db7d6835a08aca5.pdf on her bioblitz.club website.
The next month or two is the best time to look for Lonicerae galls on honeysuckle and Ribesia galls on gooseberry.
This is excellent--and I see some galls & rusts that weren't on my radar before that are listed in @nancyasquith 's link to galls of CA Feb/Apr observations! Thanks!
Ribesia galls and Lonicerae galls are already going strong at Edgewood Park!
Because 95% of the oaks in my area are Coast Live Oaks, I will be trying for more Melikaiella and Dryocosmus this early spring.
Thank you and megachile for this great information! I'm studying my print out so that I might be able to "see" better and contribute.
brown trekker
Spring Gall fun! @newtpatrol @weintraub3 @sandy_b @earth_tide
Sounds like fun!
Hi everyone again!
I’m sure most of you already know but @merav has announced the first “Spring” Gall Week (April 15-23, 2023) so be sure to join and mark your calendar!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-spring-2023
But spring is already here in California so you don’t have to wait for it to start documenting spring galls. Here are some recent exciting findings:
@naturesarchive found these mysterious bud galls on Coast Live Oak and @megachile figured out that they might be Kokkocynips attractans, originally described in 1922! I hope we can find more of these and eventually get confirmation from the experts.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148539706
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148848266
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148948391
After some really windy days, I saw a pile of freshly fallen branches under Valley Oak trees. I don’t usually like picking live specimens but since they naturally fell on the ground, I decided to pick them up and started dissecting some buds on them. I really didn’t expect much to find but surprisingly, I found lots of hidden galls, and ended up rearing an adult accidentally!! So, if you see any fresh branches fell from oak trees, you may also want to try what I did because they could truly be windfalls!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149423290
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149423537
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149485691
I found some galls on Baccharis.
Hi everyone again!
@mileszhang is asking for CA gall enthusiasts’ help to collect native wild rose galls so that he and @stephaniesq can revise Genus Diplolepis. They would like pretty much any fresh specimens (EXCEPT for D. rosae and californica), but particularly interested in the following species so if you think you can contribute, please contact Miles for more detail.
D. weldi https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120777882
D. ashmeadi https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138790374
D. inconspicuis https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/97410384
D. bassetti https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126282079
Adding just a few more people (who are really good at finding things) here, but feel free to tag other people in or forward this info if anyone is interested!
@samzanita @michaelvoeltz @lorri-gong
Thanks for signal boosting @norikonbu! If anyone has questions about ID and/or collection, please feel free to tag me!
Oh also if anyone finds some fresh Protobalandricus spectabilis or something similar please let me know as well, that is apparently the common ancestor for ALL other Cynipini galls, and it only occurs in the Pacific Coast! We don't know what the sexual generation is, or if it even has one?
There is a chance that there might be more species related to it that we don't know about?
This is what it looks like, found on Quercus chrysolepis / Quercus vacciniifolia: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1041279-Protobalandricus-spectabilis
Fascinating, thanks also for sharing that info with us @mileszhang!
A great thread! Thanks for the tag @norikonbu. I'll be keeping an eye out!
Hi everyone again!
Gall Week Spring 2023 (April 15-23) starts from this weekend so please be sure to join! Due to the super-unusual long stretch of wet, cold and stormy weather in CA this year, our spring was paused and delayed but is finally in full swing just in time for this event!
On a personal level, I’ve been busy learning about rearing adult wasps ever since I got some accidentally (reported above 2 months ago). Thanks to @megachile ‘s encouragement, support, dedication and amazing detective work, he thinks there were actually 2 different species in my specimens and they could be:
Neuroterus evolutus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=97394&taxon_id=1037809&verifiable=any
Andricus occultatus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=97394&taxon_id=1325111&verifiable=any
After this experience, I have also reared adults of 2 more species from their spring sexgen galls:
Jumping Gall Wasp (Neuroterus saltatorius):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153496922
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154650181
Spined Turban Gall Wasp (Cynips douglasii):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154474128
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154728336
My husband is quite amused by my recent transformation, because I have always been squeamish about handling live insects until now :) :) :) Anyhow, I hope everyone will get outside, enjoy the warming weather, and have fun gall-hunting!
Noriko
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