Willow rosette gall midge

The willow rosette gall midge is a tiny fly. Its larvae make willow shoots grow into a leafy ball that looks like a little rose or a tiny cabbage. That leafy ball is called a gall.

How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its other name is the willow cabbage gall midge, because the gall looks like a mini cabbage.
The larvae spend the winter inside their galls, and the grown-up midges come out in late April.
Its galls do especially well on willows where ants look after aphids, and the ants, aphids and midges all live together.
Most asked questions about Willow rosette gall midge
?What is a willow rosette gall?
It is a leafy ball on a willow shoot that looks like a little rose. A midge larva lives inside it.
?Is the willow rosette gall midge harmful?
No. It is a tiny fly that does not bite or sting.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rabdophaga salicisbrassicoides
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Cecidomyiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Cecidomyiidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Willow cabbage gall midge
Where the facts come from
- Rabdophaga salicisbrassicoides (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 Franco Folini from San Francisco, USA. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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