Host plant: coast live oak
Collected: 04-07-2024
Dissected: 04-16-2024
Weird large white gall attached on Muller's Oak leaf; no exit holes
On Portuguese broom (Cytisus striatus)
Gall species?
I will be following two galls of this type on an oak I planted in 2009. They appear still to be growing... I suspect they are young Amphibolips
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202714643
G_11_Upper
Appears to be parasitic on opened Geastrum peridium. Small dark calderas emerging from where spore mass was ejected.
Dissected old one of these stem galls I had collected from Quercus kelloggii on April 1, 2023: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153392735
Link to host plant Mojave Sage (Salvia mohavensis) observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/200158479
White Sage Leaf Gall Midge (Rhopalomyia audibertiae) Endemic in California.
Gallformers: https://www.gallformers.org/gall/3243 (as of 2/22/24)
(Mojave Sage (Salvia mohavensis) is not listed specifically as a host in Gallformers as of 2/22/24, only Salvia apiana / Salvia leucophylla / Salvia mellifera ).
"Rhopalomyia audibertiae
Family: Cecidomyiidae | Genus: Rhopalomyia
Hosts: Salvia apiana / Salvia leucophylla / Salvia mellifera
Detachable: integral
Color: gray, red, green, purple
Texture: hairy
Shape: conical, hemispherical
Season: Spring
Alignment: erect
Location: upper leaf, lower leaf, leaf midrib, between leaf veins"
BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=Rhopalomyia%20audibertiae
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What is a Gall? Gallformers: https://www.gallformers.org/
"Plant galls are abnormal growths of plant tissues, similar to tumors or warts in animals, that have an external cause--such as an insect, mite, nematode, virus, fungus, bacterium, or even another plant species. Growths caused by genetic mutations are not galls. Nor are lerps and other constructions on a plant that do not contain plant tissue. Plant galls are often complex structures that allow the insect or mite that caused the gall to be identified even if that insect or mite is not visible."
GALLS
Plant Galls of the Western United States: a photographic guide to 536 species of plant galls found west of the Rockies, with 400+ color images and plates, Ronald A. Russo, April 2021. (Available on Amazon)
Gallformers: Identify Galls by name or by host plant https://www.gallformers.org/id
INaturalist Project, Galls of California https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/galls-of-california
California Oak Galls (photo guide), Joyce Gross: https://joycegross.com/galls_ca_oak.php
California Oak Galls Induced by Unknown or Undescribed Species (photo guide), Joyce Gross: https://joycegross.com/galls_ca_oak_undescribed.php
Nancy Asquith Journal: California Oak Galls https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/california-plants-with-mystery-galls/journal/44142-california-oak-galls
Nancy Asquith Journal: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/galls-of-california/journal/44203-where-to-learn-more-about-galls
BugGuide: Identification, Images, & Information for insects and other gall-inducers, (US & Canada) clickable categories or use search bar: https://bugguide.net/node/view/3/bgpage
BugGuide: Unidentified Tracks, Larvae, Webs, Parasites, and Other Mysteries: https://bugguide.net/node/view/696662/bgpage
INaturalist Project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/all-your-galls-are-belong-to-us
Found in our car after hiking. The car was parked under valley oak trees, but I also hiked through both valley and coast live oaks so I don’t know which host or gall she came from.
Found on a valley oak twig fallen among the leaf litter (shown in last 2 photos)
"One of these things is not like the other"
I was walking around Summit Park today. Almost all of the native trees here (let alone the oaks) are valley oaks, but up on the hill from the path nearby, I saw one large, slightly bushier oak with seemingly more pastel-colored leaves. I realized after taking a closer look that it appears to be a blue oak. It looks very old based on the trunk size (>a century old). I could not find any acorns on it, but that was also true for the valley oaks nearby for the most part (too many acorn-eating animals nearby)
Quercus agrifolia x wislizeni/parvula shrevei.
Leaf shape and venation pattern and number of pairs help to ID as such.
Collected possible galled Quercus agrifolia acorn 10/1/23, dissected same day.
Preserved in 40% alcohol and refrigerated at 40°F.
Acorn from this tree/observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185918850
Duplicated observation for parasitoid hymenopteran larvae on the rear of this cynipid wasp pupa here:
Spores under 100x magnification. Some with camera optical zoom.
Extracted by dipping in tap water and siphoning spores from upper surface of water.
Collected 9/15/23, refrigerated in a ziploc bag until 9/24 and dissected Quercus agrifolia acorn.
Preserved in 40% ethanol at 40°F.
Collected acorn from same tree, same date/time as the acorn gall observations below (2nd acorn):
Gall on Heartleaf Keckiella.
Observation of the plant is here.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/183796572
Galled (?) inside of flower/seed pod of Orange Bush Monkeyflower. For contrast, this is the inside of a normally-developed seed pod from the same plant: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134953172
q-kelloggii-acorn-cup-gall-wasp? not sure what oak this is but I think it's Q. berberidifolia? That isn't listed as one of the hosts on gallformers though
these deformed acorns were pretty common in this particular hill
Gall on Elderberry fruit? I see a hole in what appears to be misshaped fruit.
This is observation 1 of 3 that I saw earlier this year. The galls I found in these observations include an unknown 'cylinder' gall (I think they're attached to stems), and also a few of the leaf galls and possibly R. sulcata galls.
2) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126016049
3) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126016161
This is the first time I've found these galls with exuviae. On toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia, in a native plant garden.
In situ: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/169671185
Collected on 06-25-2023: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177263178
2 live and 2 dead larvae cut-out: 08-07-2023
Asteromyia modesta is only gall inducer I found for this genus, but these galls look different--fuzzy and seem to arise from stem at base of leaf; fingernail dissection attempted--not sure if one chamber or more than one
Leaf mine on Cercocarpus montanus. I didn't see any obvious areas where the miner may have exited so I collected for rearing. Leafminer specimen 2.
Host: Picea sp. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155281342
Resource - See Spruce Bud Midge pg 54: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwieksfY0a_-AhUgMDQIHehvC60QFnoECBcQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fs.usda.gov%2FInternet%2FFSE_DOCUMENTS%2Fstelprdb5315942.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0Y5WoWZJ0VPWWojcIsu_b7
Found on two different blue oaks. Looked fungal, not sure what's going on here!
@alanrockefeller I heard you might know what's going on here?
Lots of cavorting - I assume that's a male urinating on the female.
4 adults merged from a gall collected in this area:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153729350
Collection date: 04-01-2023
Emergence date: 04-27-2023
4 more identical midges emerged (no photos added here):
04-28-2023
Time-lapse of emergence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1apsuYRoAc
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6argssxK8uE
Two spiders, both hidden in sand. First two pictures the spider was larger than the one in the 3rd and 4th photos
(I wasn't taking them out of their burrows to clarify, I had no clue they were there in the first place)
Sycophila?
The male was repeatedly bobbing his head in front of the female’s. The female seemed to be casually trying to dislodge him by flipping up her wings and brushing at him with her legs. Sometimes the female would arch her antennae up toward the male’s, though. Eventually the male made a quick attempt to dip his abdomen under hers, but went immediately back to the bobbing courtship. It went on for about 15 minutes until I had to leave.
Emerged from fallen branches collected under this valley oak: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149296643
Collection date: 02-18-2023
Emergence date: 02-25-2023
Emerged from fallen branches collected under this valley oak: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149296643
Collection date: 02-18-2023
Emergence date: 02-23-2023
Quoting from Russo's "Plant Galls of the Western United States" (2021) page 249, in the section on Coyote Brush and Desert Broom Galls:
"This interesting cynipid wasp induces glossy, round, polythalamous galls just below the flowers of desert broom in October. The relatively smooth, glabrous gall is 8 mm in diameter. Under magnification, the surface of the gall has micro-pits, giving it the look of an orange rind." [...] "Outside of roses, chinquapin, and oaks, where the bulk of gall-inducing cynipid wasps are found, it is rather rare for a cynipid wasp to induce a gall on any vascular plant. This new species is quite common on desert broom shrubs in the southern half of Arizona, from Phoenix south."
The gall in this observation was found on Baccharis pilularis (Coyote Brush), very similar to Baccharis sarothroides (Desert Broom), and their ranges overlap in coastal Southern California, though not here.
Based on Plate 423 in Russo, there would have been a flower where the hole is.