Tag Archives: Cynipidae

Wingless Weirdos

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Charley Eiseman

Ever since I made a place on BugGuide to collect photos of them over a decade ago, I’ve been wanting to see (in person) one of those weird wingless gall wasps that can be found throughout the winter. Two years … Continue reading →

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Acorn Plum Galls (and friends)

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Charley Eiseman

Hey, this blog now has over 1000 subscribers! Thanks everyone for your continued interest in my esoteric natural history investigations. I’m still slowly working my way through the photos I took last summer, during which one of my several jobs … Continue reading →

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Arizona Oak Galls, Part 5

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

Here is yet another gall from Arizona white oak. It is another “oak apple,” superficially similar to these, which I now know to be Atrusca aggregata (thanks to Jim Zimmerman, who has studied southwestern cynipid galls for many years and … Continue reading →

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Arizona Oak Galls, Part 4

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

Here is yet another type of gall found on the underside of oak leaves in Madera Canyon. Seven weeks after I collected these, two parasitoids emerged. The one above is another male Torymus (Torymidae), which may or may not be the same … Continue reading →

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Arizona Oak Galls, Part 3

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

Okay, having looked at photos of all the possible species, I’m pretty well satisfied that Arizona white oak (Quercus arizonica) was the host of all of the galls I collected in Madera Canyon that actually produced adult cynipid wasps. Armed … Continue reading →

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Arizona Oak Galls, Part 2

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

Gall #2 is a fancy cup-shaped one found on the undersides of leaves, sometimes in clusters. A month after I collected them, the galls (kept in a tightly sealed vial) had become covered with mold, but a single wasp chewed … Continue reading →

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Arizona Oak Galls, Part 1

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

On my trip around the western US in the fall of 2012, I mostly limited my collecting to leafminers.  However, I made an exception when I got to Madera Canyon, Arizona, because I had found all kinds of interesting oak … Continue reading →

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Two-year Gall

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Charley Eiseman

This may be a pretty generic-looking gall wasp (Cynipidae), but it has an interesting history.  My first visit to Nantucket, in September 2011, was an intensive four-day survey with Noah Charney and Sydne Record in which we documented as many … Continue reading →

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Monthly Mystery #11: Water Oak Galls

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Charley Eiseman

There is a distinctive oak gall that has shown up on BugGuide several times, and I have been unable to identify it with my gall references.  The only way to get to the bottom of a mystery like this is … Continue reading →

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Eupelmids

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Charley Eiseman

Last August on Nantucket I collected some yellow galls on the midribs of dwarf chinquapin oak (Quercus prinoides) leaves.  They are unlike any that I have found before or since, and I have found no references to them in literature, … Continue reading →

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