Giant goldenrod bunch gall midge
This is a tiny fly from North America that turns goldenrod plants into little homes. Its larvae make the tip of the plant grow into a thick bunch of leaves called a gall. Some of these galls look like a star, and others look like a small sunflower.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
There are two families of new midges every year, and both make galls.
The spring galls appear in May close to the ground. They can be up to 10 centimetres wide and are shaped like a star.
Inside a gall are little white rooms shaped like cones. Each room has just one orange larva in it.
The summer galls look like a sunflower and can have up to 20 rooms inside.
Young larvae spend the winter hidden in the underground stems of the goldenrod.
Most asked questions about Giant goldenrod bunch gall midge
?What is a goldenrod gall?
It is a thick bunch of leaves that a goldenrod plant grows around the midge larvae. The larvae live safely inside it.
?Is the goldenrod gall midge harmful?
Not to people. It is a tiny fly that only lives on goldenrod plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rhopalomyia capitata
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Cecidomyiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Cecidomyiidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Giant goldenrod bunch gall
Where the facts come from
- Rhopalomyia capitata (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 Rochelle Davis. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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