acorn plum gall wasp

(Amphibolips quercusjuglans)

Conservation Status
acorn plum gall wasp
Photo by Luciearl
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

not listed

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
           
           
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

Acorn plum gall wasp insect is very small for a wasp but very large for a gall wasp.

The female is ¼ in length. The head is large and black, and has a finely wrinkled texture. The antennae are short, stout, and 12-jointed.

The thorax is highly convex and very robust, wider than the head. It is black and has a coarsely wrinkled texture. It is marked with fine longitudinal lines that have the appearance of needle scratches. The lines in front (anterior) are fine and slightly spread apart. The lines near the wing bases are rather long. The plate between the wing bases (scutellum) is cushion-shaped, slightly wider than long, and has a wrinkled texture.

The abdomen is black, and more or less opaque. The upper side is densely covered with tiny pits (punctate). The lower side is shiny, hairy, and not punctate.

The legs are yellowish-brown.

The wings are transparent and dusky, with a brownish area in the middle from the base to the tip.

The male has 15-jointed antennae but is otherwise similar to the female.

Like other cypnid wasps, this species is usually identified by the galls it produces. The galls are formed on the acorn cups of northern red oak in the spring or early summer. When they first appear the galls are small, pink, round, smooth, solid, and fleshy. As the larva grows the gall expands to to 1 in diameter and turns blood red. Old galls are brown, dry, and so hard that they are difficult to cut with a knife. They easily drop off and are often found on the ground.

It was once thought that the gall was caused by a chemical irritant that the female deposits with the egg. It was later learned that gall formation does not commence until the egg hatches or just before it hatches. It is now thought that the gall is a result of the irritating action of the larvae acting on developing plant cells.

 
     
 

Size

 
 

Total Length, Female: ¼

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
  Spongy oak apple gall wasp (Amphibolips confluenta) galls are on leaves. They sometimes take over the entire leaf and appear to be on the twig.  
     
 
Habitat
 
 

 

 
     
 
Biology
 
 

Season

 
 

Winged adults active in the fall

 
     
 

Behavior

 
 

 

 
     
 

Life Cycle

 
 

The life cycle of this wasp involves alternation of generations, one generation with only asexual females and one generation with both sexual males and sexual females.

After mating in the fall the sexual female wasp drops to the ground. She burrows into the soil at the base of a host tree and injects her eggs into the tree’s roots. These eggs, the first generation embryo stage, overwinter. When they hatch in the early spring, the larvae begin feeding on the roots. Soon they enter the pupal stage, a period of inactivity and metamorphosis. Later, still in the spring, the wingless, asexual female adult hatches and emerges from the soil. She crawls up the tree trunk, finds a developing acorn, and injects a single egg into the cup. She then finds another acorn and repeats the process with her remaining eggs. These eggs are the second generation embryo stage. The egg hatches and the larva begins feeding on the acorn cup. This causes a chemical reaction that results in the formation of a ball-like gall. The galls appear in the late spring or early summer. As the season progresses the larva gets larger and so does the gall. Second-generation, winged, male and female sexual adults emerge in the fall and immediately search out a mate. The cycle continues.

 
     
 

Larva Hosts

 
 

In Minnesota, only northern red oak (Quercus rubra)

 
     
 

Adult Food

 
 

Adult wasps do not feed.

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

24, 27, 30.

 
  8/8/2018      
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common in the eastern half of the United States, uncommon in Minnesota.

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
 

Order

Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies)  
 

Suborder

Apocrita (narrow-waisted wasps, ants, and bees)  
  Infraorder Proctotrupomorpha  
 

Superfamily

Cynipoidea (gall wasps and allies)  
 

Family

Cynipidae (gall wasps)  
 

Subfamily

Cynipinae  
  Tribe Cynipini (oak gall wasps)  
 

Genus

Neuroterus  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Amphibolips prunus

Cynips quercusjuglans

Cynips quercusprunus

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

acorn plum gall wasp

 
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Gall

An abnormal growth on a plant produced in response to an insect larva, mite, bacteria, or fungus.

 

Punctate

Dotted with pits (punctures), translucent sunken glands, or colored spots of pigment.

 

Scutellum

The exoskeletal plate covering the rearward (posterior) part of the middle segment of the thorax in some insects. In Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Homoptera, the dorsal, often triangular plate behind the pronotum and between the bases of the front wings. In Diptera, the exoskeletal plate between the abdomen and the thorax.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Visitor Photos
 
           
 

Share your photo of this insect.

 
  This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Attach one or more photos and, if you like, a caption.
 
 

Luciearl

 
 

Acorn Plum Gall

Not sure if there is a category for these, but neat to find them still on the tree. I have only found the Acorn Plum Galls on the ground in the past.

  acorn plum gall wasp  
           
    acorn plum gall wasp   acorn plum gall wasp  
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
 

 

 
           
           

 

Camera

     
 
Slideshows
 
 
     
     
     

 

slideshow

       
 
Visitor Videos
 
       
 

Share your video of this insect.

 
  This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Attach a video, a YouTube link, or a cloud storage link.
 
 

 

 
     
     
       
       
       
 
Other Videos
 
     
     
     
       

 

Camcorder

 
 
Visitor Sightings
 
           
 

Report a sighting of this insect.

 
  This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Be sure to include a location.
 
  Luciearl
8/11/2018

Location: Fairview Township

Not sure if there is a category for these, but neat to find them still on the tree. I have only found the Acorn Plum Galls on the ground in the past.

acorn plum gall wasp  
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Sightings
 
 

 

 

 

 

Binoculars


Created: 8/18/2019

Last Updated:

About Us | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | © MinnesotaSeasons.com. All rights reserved.