Clustered midrib gall wasp
Andricus dimorphus
The clustered midrib gall wasp is a tiny wasp that makes oak trees grow little balls for its babies. These balls are called galls. They grow in groups along the middle line under an oak leaf.
Lives in
Central and eastern North America, wherever white oaks grow
What does it eat?
Its babies live inside the galls and eat the plant tissue there.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Clustered midrib 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
Up to 50 small red-brown galls can sit together on one leaf.
2
The galls start to grow in late summer and fall off the leaf easily when they are ripe.
3
The grown-up wasps climb out of the galls the next year.
4
Sometimes other insects move into its galls as uninvited guests.
you asked
Most asked questions about Clustered midrib gall wasp
?What is an oak gall?
A little ball that an oak grows around a wasp's baby. The baby lives and eats inside it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andricus dimorphus
- Named by
- Beutenmuller, 1913
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Andricus dimorphus (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 Friesen5000. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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