Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Jumping Oak Wasps sighted in YS

This from Corinne Pelzl:

There are many pin-head-size, light-tan-colored jumping oak galls on a tarp canopy under a burr oak near our house in Yellow Springs, and all around under the tree. I have not had them scientifically identified, but I called my friend, a retired Ohio forester, and she told me to internet search jumping insect oak tree. The search quickly turned up Cynipid wasp gall of oak leaves, describing the wasp egg-laying on the leaf causing a 1 mm gall with the egg inside, which falls off, and the larva hatches inside the gall and jumps around. The movement possibly helps the larva go into a protective soil crevice. The larva forms a pupa inside the tiny gall, and develops into the adult, a tiny wasp which emerges from the gall. Perhaps others have seen these and wondered what they are. They are like a tiny version of a Mexican Jumping "Bean," which are the seeds of a Euphorbia-related shrub which jump due to the movements of an Olethreutid moth larva.

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