Jewel oak gall wasp
The jewel oak gall wasp is a tiny wasp that lives on oak trees. Its babies grow inside little lumps called galls, which the tree makes on its leaves. The galls are covered in pointy facets and look like jewels.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It has two kinds of families each year: one with mums and dads, and one with only mums.
In autumn, females without wings come out of their galls and climb up the oak tree to lay eggs in the buds.
The jewel galls grow on the veins under the oak leaves. They can be white, yellowish, tan or brown.
In autumn the galls fall to the ground together with the leaves, and soon new wasps crawl out.
Most asked questions about Jewel oak gall wasp
?What is an oak gall?
A little lump that the oak tree grows around a wasp egg. The baby wasp lives and grows inside it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acraspis quercushirta
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Acraspis quercushirta (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Nicholas Soucy. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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