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between sexual and asexual generations. What could be cooler? .
All galls are (divided into three parts—no wait, that’s Julius Caesar) aberrant plant growths caused by a variety of microorganisms, nematodes, mites and insects, particularly flies, wasps and aphids. Galls can be found on all groups of plants and come in all sizes, textures and shapes, resembling everything from marbles to dunce caps, spikes, cups or buttons.
Most insect galls develop on oaks and they’re caused by (ynipid wasps, a diverse group of small wasps numbering over 600 species in North America and many thousands more worldwide.
Some oak galls are quite valuable. They concentrate a mixture of resins and tannins, used commercially to make permanent inks and astringent ointments. Inks of the best quality have been made from oak galls, the most prominent coming from the Aleppo galls of Europe and Asia.
Oak galls we commonly see in the county are thin-shelled, spongy “apples” that start out green and slowly turn brown* during the summer. They are formed by the (ynipid Amphibolips confluents, a tiny darkcolored ant-like wasp. During the summer, each gall contains a single male or female wasp. The galls are stimulated to grow by chemicals in wasp saliva that mimic the effects of plant hormones.
In late June or July winged adults emerge from their oak apple condos to mate. After this brief sexual phase, males die and females burrow into the ground and lay fertilized eggs on oak roots. These hatch into all-female larvae that begin feeding on root tissue, which stimulates development of another sort of gall below
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