Striped volcano gall wasp
The striped volcano gall wasp is a tiny wasp that makes little bumps, called galls, on oak leaves. Its babies grow up safely inside these bumps. In summer the bumps look like tiny pale volcanoes with red stripes.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It only makes its galls on the leaves of the blue oak tree.
It has two different generations each year. In one there are mothers and fathers, in the other there are only mothers.
The spring galls are round, about 3 to 4 millimetres, and start green or pink before turning brown.
The summer galls are pointy little cones, pale with red stripes. That is where its volcano name comes from.
Most asked questions about Striped volcano gall wasp
?What is a gall?
A gall is a little bump that grows on a plant around a baby insect, giving it a safe home and food.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Feron atrimentum
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Feron atrimentum (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 iNaturalist user: joergmlpts. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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