#cynipid

cynipid wasp galls by myriorama https://flic.kr/p/2nJZvBV

This is picture 9 from a 12 picture invited series by Matt Buffington ([email protected]) at the USDA Parastitic Hymentoptera group using specimens from the U.S. Natural History Museum Smithsonian. Matt uses a system very similar to ours to photograph and stack this super tiny wasp. Looking for the missing link between gall wasps and other cynipoids?  Look no further than Parnips nigripes!  This wasp parasitizes Barbotinia gall wasps that gall Papaver in the Mediterranean; how's that for being super-specific?  Well, this wasp also has many morphological features of gall wasps, so we consider this species to 'bridge' the entomophagous figitid wasps with the phytophagous cynipid wasps!

As majestic as the Golden State itself,we present Andricus quercuscalifornicus.  This oak gall wasp (Cynipini) is a common species in California, producing 'oak apples' on the singular and mysterious valley oak (Quercus lobata).

Pink galls on a Eucalypt leaf. Most likely the kind formed by Cynipid gall-wasps, but complicated by the habit of other insects to parasitise the gall or the resident larvae. Australia's gall-wasp fauna is small and not well known. Photographed in Uranquinty, NSW