Unknown q-macrocarpa-bud-cells (sexgen)

The inducer of this gall is unknown or undescribed.
Family: Cynipidae | Genus: Unknown
Detachable: integral
Color: brown, green, tan
Texture: hairless
Abundance: abundant
Shape:
Season: Spring
Related:
Alignment: integral
Walls: thick
Location: bud
Form: hidden cell
Cells: polythalamous
Possible Range:i
Common Name(s):
Synonymy:

Gallformers ID Notes

Thick-walled polythalamous galls in the buds of white group oaks. Found on both terminal and lateral buds and both flower and leaf buds. Male wasps emerge very early in the spring, shortly after the beginning of budbreak, leaving distinct egress holes in buds. Typically buds with such holes fail to continue developing, but some buds may develop as normal. When dissected, buds with egress holes more often than not contain maturing pupae or adults, presumed to be those of the females of the same species, which emerge within the following weeks. Females presumed to belong to this species have been observed ovipositing in the lower midrib of young leaves. Hosts include Quercus macrocarpa, muehlenbergii, stellata, and sinuata. Original records on Quercus laceyi were a mistake; however, later collections discovered that a gall of this form does in fact occur on Q laceyi.

Unlike many late-winter/early spring cryptic bud galls on white-group oaks, these are sexual generation galls. Unlike many cryptic sexual generation bud galls on white-group oaks, they emerge at the beginning of spring, not the middle or end.

- Gallformers Contributors: (2024) Gallformers ID Notes©


Further Information:
Author(s)
Year
Title
License
Gallformers Contributors
2024
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

See Also:
Unless noted otherwise in the ID Notes, observations of this gall are collected in the Observation Field Gallformers Code with value q-macrocarpa-bud-cells on iNaturalist. You can view them here:
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