Our ID Notes may contain important tips necessary for distinguishing this gall
from similar galls and/or important information about the taxonomic status of
this gall inducer.
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It is not entirely clear based on the current literature and available observations whether there is one, two, or more species of acorn pip galls on first-year acorns of Quercus ilicifolia. Only one, Callirhytis perditor, is described, and the descriptions and images of this species are sufficiently ambiguous that they could feasibly apply to all known observations. Bassett and Weld list this species as a spring gall, but Beutenmuller implies that it matures in the fall. Weld lists a distinct undescribed species on Q ilicifolia in the fall, but indicates the same image listed for C perditor, and gives no way to distinguish this gall other than phenology. None of the descriptions of either gall mention spots, which are frequently and prominently observed on pip galls on Quercus ilicifolia. Until further research is conducted to settle the question, all observations on Q ilicifolia may be tentatively assigned to C perditor.
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Andricus perditor
Quercus ilicifolia
Acorn aborted and becomes a gall
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Callirhytis perditor (Bass.)
Quercus ilicifolia
[Photo caption]
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Andricus perditor
The galls of this species are 3 to nearly 4 mm. long and 2.5-3 mm. broad. The base is broad, the apex conical, the base with the cicatrix of a true acorn. They occur in among the acorns of Quercus ilicifolia in the Spring of the acorns' second year's growth, at which time the latter are very like these galls in appearance.
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Andricus perditor
Inhabiting apparently normal, small acorns or those slightly deformed, on Quercus ilicifolia.
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Andricus perditor, n. sp.
The acorns of Q. ilicifolia are, as is well known, two years in reaching maturity. In the Spring of the second year they are still very small, hardly as large as a coriander seed. At this time ants are often seen hurrying about among the young acorns and feeding upon a liquid that exudes from some of the acorns. The affected acorns are really galls--transformed acorns--that differ little in form and color from the unaffected acorns. The larva of a gall-fly lives in each of these pseud acorns. Its larval growth is complete in Spring or early Summer. I have never found them very abundant though they appear quite constantly from year to year.
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Callirhytis perditor (Bassett).
Andricus perditor
Like balanosa Weld, this species is described as producing early spring galls which secrete honeydew on immature acorns of the previous season, but on a different host , Quercus ilicifolia instead of on Quercus velutina.
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Andricus perditor
The gall of this species is practically nothing more than a deformed acorn of the scrub oak. The eggs are deposited early in spring in the very young acorns of the first year's growth. They are reddish and mature in September and October. When fully developed they turn brown like the color of the acorns.
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