#cynipidae — Public Fediverse posts

One thing you learn very quickly when photographing oak galls is that bald-faced hornets are huge gall fans, too. #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #cynipidae #oaks #nectar #wasps #insects #biology #hymentopera #hornets

Found some banded bullet galls (Kokkocynips imbricariae) yesterday. I also found a dollar near the tree. It was a good day. Media, PA, USA. #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #wasps #cynipidae #insects #entomology #oaks #quercus

I don't wear earrings but it seems like there should be more shops selling ones that look like oak galls. Or *are* oak galls. #earrings #art #jewelry #cynipidae #galls #insects

These oak button galls (Neuroterus umbilicatus) give a nice sense of how small cynipid wasps are. I've seen photographs that are so loaded them that you can barely see the leaf surface. #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #cynipidae #oaks #quercus #entomology #nature #wasps

Jewel oak gall (Acraspis quercushirta), living up to its name. Little Crum Creek Park, Swarthmore, PA, USA. #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #cynipidae #oaks #quercus #entomology #nature #wasp

Yesterday's fun gall find was Phylloteras sigma (Cynipidae), a rarely-photographed beauty with no common name. iNaturalist observations are mainly in PA, DE, MD, VA, and DC but BugGuide lists NY, too. Reported on both Quercus alba and Q. muehlenbergii. Little Crum Creek Park, Swarthmore, PA. #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #cynipidae #oaks #quercus #entomology #nature #gallformers

This is Andricus nigricens, another cynipid wasp that makes galls on oaks. Each lobe is home to a single larva (and possibly a parasite, because such is life). 2/5 #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #wasps #oaks #cynipidae #inaturalist #quercus

Thread of the five types of galls I found yesterday. First up are oak rough bullet galls (Disholcaspis quercusmamma), protecting themselves from parasitic wasps by attracting ants with nectar. Swarthmore, PA, USA. 1/5 #GallWeek2025 #gall #galls #wasps #ants #oaks #cynipidae #inaturalist #nectar #nature #biology #quercus

I don't want to name names but apparently some of you did not go out and take photographs of galls yesterday. #GallWeek25 #GallWeek2025 #GallWeek #gall #galls #insects #inaturalist #entomology #nature #cynipidae https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-september-2025

Common spangle gall wasps (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum). Gard, France. #gall #wasp #insect #oak #nature #quercus #cynipidae

Here's a screenshot of the 10 most common species found during a previous spring gall week on iNaturalist. Join the project linked above to learn more. #inaturalist #gall #galls #GallWasps #GallWeek2025 #gallformers #cynipidae

Found a wasp ovipositing into a Callirhytis furva gall on Saturday. Actual ID likely impossible (wasps are hard), but iNaturalist's computer vision guessed Periclistus, a cynipid genus that uses other cynipid galls as homes. But Periclistus is not, I think, a known inquiline of Callirhytis, so likely something else. #gall #galls #GallWeek #GallWeek2024 #wasp #hymenoptera #cynipidae #nature #macro #oak #inaturalist #insect

Found an interesting looking Oak Gall today, possibly Dyer's Gall Andricus infectorius. It is the elongated sphere with bumpy bits. The gall alongside is Ram's-horn Gall.

First found in Britain in 2012, but not recognised until later. Can be easily confused with Marble Gall.

#PlantGalls #VC56 #Andricus #Cynipidae

A distinctive little oak gall wasp from the UT insect collection.

#Insects #Collections #Cynipidae

Galls made by Andricus nigricens on the underside of an oak leaf. Each of the little detachable sections contains a wasp, though not always the original gallmaker — like all galls, the inhabitants are a complicated mix of parasitoids and inquilines. I might collect some to provide entertainment during the winter months. #wasps #cynipidae #hymenoptera #GallWasps #insects #entomology #nature #oak #quercus

Here's a good primer on gall wasps from KQED. #wasps #insects #cynipidae #hymenoptera #oak #galls #quercus #trees #nature #entomology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOgP5NzcTuA

Here's a cynipid wasp in the genus Acraspis that I found crawling on snow a few years ago. Look at those wing stubs! #wasps #insects #cynipidae #hymenoptera #oak #galls #quercus #trees #nature #entomology

Oak pea gall made by the cynipid wasp, Acraspis pezomachoides. I'm tempted to collect some of these and rear them for winter entertainment. Full of females (wingless or brachypterous) because this is the gall of the agamic generation. I have no idea what the sexual-phase one looks like. Gall wasps are so strange. #wasps #insects #cynipidae #hymenoptera #oak #galls #quercus #trees #nature #entomology

Want to help out a gall-wasp researcher? Louis Nastasi at Penn State University is appealing to people in the United States able to send him herb-wasp galls (Aulacideini) from the following plants: rattlesnake root, tuberous desert chicory, Lindley's silverpuff, rabbitbrush, and rosinweed. #galls #nature #wasps #hymenoptera #taxonomy #cynipidae https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/83774-gall-week-fall-2023-top-5-north-american-herb-gall-wasps-to-look-for

Just a reminder that if you find fallen oak branches after a storm you should look for galls and post photographs. I highly recommend this site for ID help. #wasps #insects #oaks #galls #cynipidae #entomology
https://gallformers.org/

These attractive little Belonocnema gall wasps are all over the live oaks in Austin this month, mating and laying eggs into the newly emerging leaves.

By fall, the underside of affected leaves will be covered in little round falls, each sheltering a wasp grub (or its parasites!).

#Cynipidae #GallWasps #Insects

Leafy oak gall made by the cynipid wasp, Andricus quercusfoliatus. The leaves look as if they've developed from the scales of an acorn cap (cupule). Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, FL. #wasp #Cynipidae #Hymenoptera #insect #entomology #nature #oak #floof

Cross section of a larger empty oak apple gall (Amphibolips quercusinanis). The central mass is where the wasp larva resides, orchestrating the growth of the gall and redirecting resources to support the tissues it grazes on. #wasp #Cynipidae #Hymenoptera #gall #insect #entomology #nature #photography #oak #Quercus

One of my favorite pics from 2022, a cluster of sugar-exuding Callirhytis quercusgemmaria galls being tended by ferruginous carpenter ants (Camponotus chromaiodes).

#oak #galls #Cynipidae #ants #wasps #Quercus #entomology #insects #Hymenoptera #nature #photography #macro