our fuzzy oak gall

here is a gall that is close to ours:
http://www.myrmecos.net/insects/Acraspis1.html

made by tiny wasps aparantly called Acraspis, in the cynipid family.

here are similar ones:
http://biodiversity.georgetown.edu/images/oak-gall-aa-073-010901s.jpg

these are another variation:
http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/weeklypics/Weekly_Picture8-6-01-2.html

now dangit i was so out of it i don't recall wether we were looking at white oak or not! but judging by our photo, now i say it's not white oak.

if you google image: cynipid oak gall you get to see the huge variety of the collaboration handiwork between cynipid wasps and oak trees.


so what are they? Cynipids are tiny wasps the size of sesame seeds use their hypodermic needle like ovipositors to lay eggs in the propper tissues of plants. they also no doubt secrete various substances along with the eggs. in combination with these substances and stuff the growing egg starts secreting, the plant is induced to form a gall. i don't think we know too many details yet. basically the substances modulate what the growing cells are doing and derail the normal developmental processs of the plant in various ways so that the plant grows what you might call a creative tumor.

the wasp mothers select tissue that is in the process of growing, and the goal is to get the tissues to form a protective coat, and to form layers rich in proteins for the larvae to eat.

the various forms are what you get when you mess with the developmental mechanisms of the plants. of course through evolutionary time we see that plants themselves have been exploring these outlandish changes in mechanisms because there are already all kinds of plant forms out there. it's all creative.

eventually the larvas turn into adults and hatch out to start again. cynipid wasps have complex lifecycles i think and maybe half their life cycle is making galls on one plant and half on another.

the galls are great places to live in so plenty of other insects invade. other wasps seek out galls and lay THIER eggs in them. there are probably even wasps that lay their eggs (using very clever ovipositors) INSIDE the existing cynipid wasp larva.

in general parasitic wasps are known for laying their eggs in other insect larvae! in fact there are some cases where wasps lay eggs inside the larvae of other wasps that are allready inside catipillars. life is nested chinese boxes!

ok, i found a good introduction about galls:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljuly99.htm


So WHY is this a bad egg issue? i think the message here is that for most of life on this planet, creatures are highly entangled with each other. odd that we like to remain so aloof.