what is this? It is only on a few limbs, and are spaced about 12" apart, this one limb has 4 on it!
oak tree stuff?
- Thread starter hibiscusmile
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If your talking about the ball thing I would hazard a guess at some species of wasp/Hornet/Bee.
We have one in the UK that makes nests like yours but I cant think of the anme of it to save my life. The closest thing I can think of is the Median wasp but yours is defiantly not that.
If your not talking about the ball thing then I have no idea
We have one in the UK that makes nests like yours but I cant think of the anme of it to save my life. The closest thing I can think of is the Median wasp but yours is defiantly not that.
If your not talking about the ball thing then I have no idea
PhilinYuma
Well-known member
This is an oak gall made by a gall wasp (cynipid, I think). The gall protects the wasp maggot as it munches on the leaf and stem. The hole in the gall in yr nice pic shows that the adult had already emerged.
In the "easy to forget" department. Kinsey, of the "Kinsey Report" was an entomologist before he started his study of sexuality and assembled the world's largest collection of gall wasps. You can mention that, next time you're stuck at a traffic light! :lol:
In the "easy to forget" department. Kinsey, of the "Kinsey Report" was an entomologist before he started his study of sexuality and assembled the world's largest collection of gall wasps. You can mention that, next time you're stuck at a traffic light! :lol:
tks, I looked it up and appears to be the marlble gall wasp, the hole is closed, so it does not appear as it has hatched yet?
yea it was the ball thing!
yea it was the ball thing!
Termite48
Well-known member
We used to "on the farm" in Fresno just call it Oak Galls, but they do appear on a number of trees in the US.
They are fun to play with if you have a couple of people with some room and some cheap tennis rackets.
They are fun to play with if you have a couple of people with some room and some cheap tennis rackets.
patrickfraser
Well-known member
You got some gall.
sporeworld
Well-known member
I've been in California so long, oak leaves seem "exotic" to me. Sometimes (not ALL the time) I miss the midwest...
Peter Clausen
Well-known member
These things are fun. I remember seeing them as a kid at a place my family used to take our boat called Westport, a city in Washington, I believe. Or maybe it was Eastport. Anyway, there were hundreds of them beneath each huge oak tree and more in the tree itself. They were fun to step on since they were hollow with a sort of satisfying crunch as would be produced by a hollow chicken egg. They were too light to make good projectiles, however (there were a number of other boys my age in the boat club). They were a pale tan usually with red spots, but sometimes greenish (memory may have faded some on the latter). If opened carefully there was a small, central mass. Between this mass and the outer shell were radial "hairs" that hardly provided structure during this dead phase of the (fallen) oak goal, but which I assume provided structure and transport to the shell during the growing phase. As I understood it, the gall itself is an allergic reaction to the oviposition of an egg into a plant's tissue. The gall grows and a single larva of one of these wasps has a very cozy place to feed and grow. (correct me if I'm wrong) Picked directly off the tree, instead of the ground, you can often find the still-living, pale larva inside that central mass.
Ten years ago I found the galls of another species of gall wasp or oak (Quercus sp.), or more likely both. These were larger, maybe 2.5 inches in diameter, woody and very hard to break open.
Finally, a few years back, a friend showed me some galls from California that measured 1/8 inch. Like Mexican jumping beans, they would jump if disturbed! He kept around a hundred of them in a lidded petri dish so that when one jumped it would set off a chain reaction and they'd all burst into antics.
The wasps of all these galls are quite small as evidenced by sightings and the small holes through which they somehow chew(?) out to emerge.
Ten years ago I found the galls of another species of gall wasp or oak (Quercus sp.), or more likely both. These were larger, maybe 2.5 inches in diameter, woody and very hard to break open.
Finally, a few years back, a friend showed me some galls from California that measured 1/8 inch. Like Mexican jumping beans, they would jump if disturbed! He kept around a hundred of them in a lidded petri dish so that when one jumped it would set off a chain reaction and they'd all burst into antics.
The wasps of all these galls are quite small as evidenced by sightings and the small holes through which they somehow chew(?) out to emerge.
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Finally, a few years back, a friend showed me some galls from California that measured 1/8 inch. Like Mexican jumping beans, they would jump if disturbed! He kept around a hundred of them in a lidded petri dish so that when one jumped it would set off a chain reaction and they'd all burst into antics.
Now that would be real after dinner entainment! tks for the story !
Now that would be real after dinner entainment! tks for the story !
Idolofreak
Well-known member
Yeah, I was gonna say Gall Wasp as soon as I saw the big "ball".
