Jumping gall wasp
The jumping gall wasp is a tiny wasp, smaller than a grain of rice is wide. It makes oak trees grow little round balls, called galls, on their leaves. A baby wasp lives inside each ball, and when the balls fall to the ground, they hop around.
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Fun facts
The galls jump because the larva inside wriggles and moves. It happens on dry, warm days.
The galls are only 1 millimetre across and grow on the underside of oak leaves.
Jumping may help the galls burrow deeper into the fallen leaves, where they are safer from weather and hungry animals.
It has two kinds of generations. One is all females, and the next one has both males and females.
The grown-up wasps are brown or black with reddish legs.
Most asked questions about Jumping gall wasp
?Why do the galls of the jumping gall wasp jump?
Because the little larva inside moves around, making the tiny gall hop on the ground.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Neuroterus saltatorius
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Neuroterus saltatorius (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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