Oak curved-leaf gall wasp
The oak curved-leaf gall wasp is a tiny wasp that makes oak trees build little homes for its babies. The tree grows a small ball, called a gall, around each egg. The young wasp lives and grows safely inside it.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its galls on oak leaves are round balls about 8 millimetres across. They can make the leaf bend.
It has two different families in one year. The spring wasps lay eggs on leaves, and the summer wasps lay eggs on buds.
The bud gall is only 3 millimetres long and shaped like a skittle. It hides between the bud scales.
The young wasp spends the whole winter inside its gall and comes out in spring.
Its galls have been found on eight different kinds of oak trees.
Most asked questions about Oak curved-leaf gall wasp
?What is an oak gall?
A small ball that an oak tree grows around a gall wasp egg. The young wasp lives inside it.
?Where does the oak curved-leaf gall wasp live?
In most of Europe, wherever oak trees grow.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andricus curvator
- Named by
- Hartig, 1840
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Andricus curvator (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 Lairich Rig. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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