Oak rough bulletgall wasp
The oak rough bulletgall wasp is a tiny wasp that makes an oak tree grow a little round house for its baby. This house is called a gall. It is round like a bullet, feels velvety and has a small point on top.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It alternates between two kinds of families. One year group has only females, the next has males and females.
The big summer and autumn galls hold only female larvae. These females can lay eggs without any male.
Its galls can make the oak ooze a sweet, sticky juice. Hornets and ants come to drink it and may help guard the larva inside.
Each generation makes a different gall: small hidden ones on spring leaves, and big round ones on twigs later in the year.
Most asked questions about Oak rough bulletgall wasp
?What is a bullet gall?
A small round growth on an oak twig. The tree grows it around the wasp's egg, and the larva lives inside.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Disholcaspis quercusmamma
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Disholcaspis quercusmamma (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 Peter Chen 2.0. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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