Galls, Diseases, and Pests - Live Oak Apple Gall Wasp
Amphibolips quercuspomiformis
I found these galls on Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia).
You can see the larval chambers on the upper half.
The inside of the gall looks soft, but it was actually quite hard.
And inside the larval chambers are larvae!
This gall was unusual--it was very fuzzy. I'm not sure what was going on with it.
Another view of the fuzzy gall.
The fuzz stayed put even after the gall turned brown.
Notice the holes where the wasps exited the gall.
Three Live Oak Apple Galls that grew to very different sizes. Note that the more the galls developed, the smoother the outside surface became.
A very large gall!
You can see the boreholes in this gall.
Not a very great photo, but this is one of the small wasps that emerged from the gall.
This gall has probably been pecked on, leaving a large hole. You can see the texture on the inside of the gall is much like that in younger galls, but it is much drier.
Many gall-inducing insects produce more than one generation per year. And because of the different environmental factors at various times of the year, the galls can be very different from one generation to the next. These Spring generation galls are found on Coast Live Oak leaves.