Oak petiole gall wasp
The oak petiole gall wasp is a tiny wasp that gets oak trees to build a home for its babies. The tree grows a firm lump on the stalk or middle vein of a leaf. Inside the lump are little rooms, each with a baby wasp.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its gall starts out green, then turns brown and hard like wood as it gets older.
The galls appear in spring, and the grown-up wasps crawl out in late June and early July.
It only uses white oaks, such as the bur oak and the post oak.
Another tiny wasp, called the crypt-keeper wasp, sneaks into its galls and lays its own eggs there.
Most asked questions about Oak petiole gall wasp
?What is an oak gall?
A lump that an oak tree grows around a gall wasp's eggs. The young wasps live inside it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andricus quercuspetiolicola
- Named by
- Bassett, 1863
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Andricus quercuspetiolicola (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 Lorenzo D'Alessio. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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