Oyster gall wasp
The oyster gall wasp is a tiny wasp that makes oak trees grow little homes for its babies. These bumps are called galls. One kind looks like a tiny oyster shell on the underside of an oak leaf.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It has two different generations each year, and each one makes a different gall.
The oyster gall opens with two little flaps, like a tiny oyster shell, and the flaps stay even after the gall falls off.
The other gall grows inside an oak bud in spring, and the wasp comes out of it within about a week.
The oyster galls can be green, brown, pink or even have red spots.
In the autumn generation there are only females, and they can lay eggs without any males.
Most asked questions about Oyster gall wasp
?What is an oyster gall?
It is a tiny bump on the underside of an oak leaf that the wasp makes the tree grow for its baby.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Neuroterus anthracinus
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Neuroterus anthracinus (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 Rosser1954 Roger Griffith. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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