Lobed oak gall wasp
Andricus quercusstrobilanus
Name means: “oak cone, because its gall is shaped like a cone”
The lobed oak gall wasp is a tiny wasp whose babies grow inside oak trees. The larvae make the oak grow a strange bumpy ball that looks like a pine cone. Each little wedge of that ball is a cosy home for one larva.
Lives in
North America, on white oaks
What does it eat?
Its larvae live inside the gall and feed on the oak plant around them.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Lobed oak 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 cone-shaped galls change colour, from pink or red to yellow and then brown.
2
When the gall dries, its hard corky wedges break off very easily.
3
Scientists have not even described what the grown up wasps look like yet.
4
Other tiny wasps sneak into the galls and live there as guests.
you asked
Most asked questions about Lobed oak gall wasp
?What is an oak gall?
It is a lump that an oak grows when a gall wasp larva lives inside it. For this wasp it looks like a pine cone.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andricus quercusstrobilanus
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Andricus quercusstrobilanus (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 Antoine Guiguet. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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