Contarinia negundinis

Family: Cecidomyiidae | Genus: Contarinia
Detachable: integral
Color: gray, red, yellow, green
Texture: hairless
Abundance: common
Shape:
Season: Spring
Related:
Alignment: integral
Walls: thick
Location: bud, lower leaf, leaf midrib, stem
Form: abrupt swelling, stem club, pocket
Cells:
Possible Range:i
Common Name(s):
Synonymy:
Pending...
Slide 1 of 6
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis
image of Contarinia negundinis

Life history, habits, and damage of the boxelder leaf gall midge, Contarinia negundifolia Felt (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in Michigan

Contarinia negundifolia

The gall, caused by several larvae, develops by extensive hypertrophy of the leaf tissues; it is an irregular, elongate, globose swelling along the midrib or along the larger lateral veins of the leaflet. The size varies considerably, depending largely on the number of larvae within, and galls on lateral veins are often smaller than those on the midrib. Usually only one gall forms on a leaflet.

A young gall is green with bright crimson areas, and a mature one is mostly green. Degenerating ones become yellow, then turn brown. Galled leaves degenerate and fall from the tree shortly after larval departure. The mature gall is turgid; the degenerate one is flaccid and rubbery.

Felt described the gall and stated that the opening is on the under-surface of the leaf. Actually, the gall develops while the leaf is still partly closed so that at maturity the opening is a narrow slit formed by that portion of the upper leaf surface at the edge of the gall.

- Louis Wilson: (1966) Life history, habits, and damage of the boxelder leaf gall midge, Contarinia negundifolia Felt (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in Michigan©


Further Information:
Pending...

See Also:
iNaturalist logo
BugGuide logo
Google Scholar logo
Biodiversity Heritage Library logo