Longleaf wattle gall wasp
Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae
The longleaf wattle gall wasp is a tiny wasp from Australia. It lays its eggs in the flower buds of a wattle tree. The buds swell up into round lumps called galls, where its babies live.
Lives in
Australia, and it was taken to South Africa and Portugal
What does it eat?
Its babies live inside the galls on wattle trees and feed on the plant from the inside.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Longleaf wattle gall wasp about 22 km/h (14 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The wattle tree it lives on has become a weed in other countries.
2
People took this wasp to South Africa in 1985 and to Portugal in 2015 to stop the wattle weed from spreading.
3
It did its job so well that it is called a success story.
you asked
Most asked questions about Longleaf wattle gall wasp
?Why was the gall wasp taken to other countries?
To help stop an Australian wattle tree that had turned into a weed there.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Melanosomellidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Melanosomellidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Africa, Europe
Where the facts come from
- Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (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 JonRichfield. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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