Oak leaf gall midge
Polystepha pilulae
The oak leaf gall midge is a tiny fly. You are more likely to spot its home than the fly itself. Its babies make little round bumps called galls on oak leaves and live safely inside them.
Lives in
Eastern North America, on oak trees
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its larvae live inside a gall on an oak leaf and feed on the leaf from the inside.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Oak leaf gall midge about 8 km/h (5 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The galls grow on the top side of oak leaves, between the leaf veins.
2
Each gall is only 3 to 4 millimetres wide, thick-walled and reddish brown.
3
It only uses oaks from the red oak group.
you asked
Most asked questions about Oak leaf gall midge
?What are the round spots on oak leaves?
Some of them are galls made by this midge. A tiny larva lives inside each one.
?Is the oak leaf gall midge dangerous?
No. It is a harmless tiny fly.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polystepha pilulae
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Cecidomyiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Cecidomyiidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Polystepha pilulae (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 Natthager. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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