#gall mite

Mushroms

Warning : Trypophobia galls

I'm pretty sure the pupae are cut worms, and they look pretty close to hatching. And I think the spider might be some kind of False Black Widow. I have no idea what the eggs are though.

I have found them to be a lovely addition to birdwatching – particularly this time of year – as they’re an extra little nugget to keep an eye out for.   Today I travelled a grand total of 0.6km up the end of my road to Dyke Road Park in Brighton for a spot of galling, and it was extremely successful.

The first find was not a gall, but a rust fungus – Gymnosporangium sabinae – which affects Pears and Junipers, both of which it needs to complete its life cycle, using Juniper as its winter host and Pear in the summer. It creates spores which protrude from the blisters on the underside of Pear leaves (pictured)  which become airborne and infect the twigs and branches of Juniper. Interestingly, the NBN Atlas shows that there are many records of this fungus in the South, but next to none in Cornwall or Wales. I am more than under-qualifed to say why, but it’s a nice little nugget and would very much like to find out. I would assume it’s simply under-recorded.

  The next find was nice, it’s a gall wasp on Eucalyptus which was only discovered here in 2005. I am going to stand by my ‘not native, not interested’ motto and not spend too much time on this one, but I will say that it’s pretty easy to see as the gall encourages leaf drop, so if you see a Eucalyptus tree then check the leaves on the ground for little swelling on the leaf.  The identity of this gall wasp is currently uncertain, but it is close to an Australian species, Ophelimus maskelli.

  I was well excited for this next one, a gall mite called Aceria erinea on Walnut.  It causes blistering on the upperside of the leaves, with indents corresponding on the underside. The indents are lined with a felty layer of hair, in which the mites live and feed.  According to the NBN Atlas there are only 93 records of this gall mite in the UK, none of which are in Sussex, or even in the South. That’s not to say that this gall is rare, but it does show how under-recorded galls are.

  THIS ONE IS GOOD:

Witches Brooms!  They look like birds nests, but they’re actually bunches of stunted sticks. These particular clumps are on Birch but it can also be found on Hornbeam, Gean or Wild Cherry.   This gall can be caused by a number of organisms but the most common on Birch is the fungus Taphrina betulina. The galls start off as clumps of buds and then, once the fungus starts to lose hold on the host (sometimes after several years), the buds grow into the shoots you can see in these photographs. This was a gall I was hoping to see as it’s so easy to identify, and I did do a little hop when I saw it. Funny, I’ve walked underneath it a hundred times and never looked up.

  Nearly finished – the next was found on Elm, Aceria campestricola is a mite that overwinters in the bark crevices of the Elm before attacking the leaves as soon as they open in the spring. The pimples are a light green but redden when exposed to sunlight.  This is a mite that will undoubtedly be affected by Dutch Elm disease (which, by the way, comes from North America and is actually named after the country which did the research on it) which is a bit sad, as I feel like the under-recording of galls will mean that Aceria campestricola will be a silent victim. I mean, it’s only got 63 confirmed records. Come on LET’S RECORD GALLS.

  This one isn’t from Dyke Road Park, but from a site near Blackstone in Sussex. This absolute banger of a gall is a Robin’s Pincushion:

It is caused by the gall wasp Dipoloepis rosae and develops on wild roses, mostly on the stem. Each gall houses several grubs which feed on the internal gall tissues over winter and emerge as adults in the spring.  Most of the adults are female and lay fertile eggs without mating – males of this species are very rare. No comment.

LASTLY, in non gall-related news and back to Dyke Road Park, I spotted an interestingly chomped leaf and, after conferring with my friend and nature mentor Graeme Lyons, found out that it was an Elm Zig-Zag Sawfly, and that we were very lucky to see the grub still attached to the zig-zag chomp. It’s not native and therefore I am not interested, but it may well be a first record for Brighton and I am actually quite pleased with that.

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  I am going to leave this post with a call to action:  please keep an eye out for galls. Record them, acknowledge them, and spend time researching them. They are so interesting!  I am fully recommending the book Britain’s Plant Galls: A Photographic Guide by Michael Chinery as it is extremely accessible and is a really good starting point.  Thank you.