Cecidomyiidae

Lasioptera

Quercus alba

Alabama

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Quercus macrocarpa

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Quercus palustris

Quercus rubra

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Quercus velutina

Key to American Insect Galls

An illustrated catalogue of American insect galls

Lasioptera querciperda

Lasioptera querciperda

Stem galls. Lasioptera querciperda lives in the subcortical tissues of white oak twigs, producing gnarly areas and, presumably, defects in the wood.

Gall midges as forest insects

135. Cecidomyia (Lasioptera (?) querciperda)

Oak twigs. Deformation of small twigs. Woody, polythalamous, oval knot; surface mamillate, with globular swelling of the separate chambers.

MA, June

147. Cecidomyia (Probably Lasioptera querciperda)

Q alba. Q rubra. MA, RI. Leaves gall in Sept. Series of half inch long oval enlargements of twig. Excentric on limb and successive ones run spirally around it.

Lasioptera querciperda

These midges were reared at the United States Bureau of Entomology June 14 to 25, 1883 from twigs of white oak (Quercus alba) taken in Virginia. A number of parasites were obtained from June 14th to July 3d, as well as Cynipid flies. 

Gall. Large, hard, uneven galls, length 4-6 cm, diameter 2 cm, somewhat resembling a potato. The galls, according to unpublished Bureau notes by Mr Pergande, were abundant on small oaks, all the young twigs on some of the larger branches being deformed (U. S. Bur. Ent. Notes). [Felt's description suggests these were inquilines in galls of Neuroterus quercusbatatus]

A Study of Gall Midges V

Lasioptera querciperda

Reared from slightly swollen, white oak twigs of Quercua alba.

Lasioptera querciperda [Gagne implies it is ambiguous whether these midges are gall inducers or inquilines but does not associate them with any particular cynipid wasp]

Tapered, woody swellings on twig, petiole, or midvein, some of them caused by cynipid wasps
The most commonly collected species, L querciperda, has been reared from leaf midrib and twig galls of white oak and from petiole and midrib galls of bur oak and red oak. 

The plant-feeding gall midges of North America

The literature suggests there is some ambiguity about whether these midges are gall inducers or merely inquilines. They are reported from a range of both red and white group oaks, sometimes but not always associated with cynipid inducers. 

Quercus velutina added tentatively as a host based on [this unconfirmed observation](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/96852372).

Gallformers ID Notes