Aspen leaf gall midge
The aspen leaf gall midge is a tiny fly. Its babies live in little round lumps, called galls, on aspen leaves. The galls can be green, red or both, like tiny berries on the leaf.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its galls come in two forms. One is hard and about the size of a pea, the other is much smaller and soft and spongy.
The galls often grow so close together that they squeeze each other and get corners.
Each gall opens on the underside of the leaf.
In August and September the galls are ripe, and the larvae drop to the ground to keep growing.
Most asked questions about Aspen leaf gall midge
?What are the little red balls on aspen leaves?
They can be galls made by the aspen leaf gall midge. A tiny larva lives inside each one.
?Are aspen leaf galls harmful?
No. They are harmless to people, and the tree keeps growing.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Harmandiola tremulae
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Cecidomyiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Cecidomyiidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Harmandiola tremulae (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 AfroBrazilian. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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