Comments on: All the Gall: Bug-filled Bladders on Plants

By: midges

midges — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:29:51 +0000

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By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:37:21 +0000

The lovely rose color and the photogenic angle of your shot made the words “ugly red pustule” seem very inapplicable! You just can’t take an ugly photo, Fred!

By: Sally

Sally — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:06:46 +0000

Here’s my take on it, etymologically speaking. Gall being vexation or irritation certainly applies. The plant is stimulated to form these odd growths as a reaction to the irritant of the insect ovipositor, no? One writer likened it to a kid getting to live in a candy store.

Always fun, these odd growths. Nice photo too!

By: Mindy Brinson

Mindy Brinson — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:15:33 +0000

Thanks for the latest “search fodder”! I found a nice site that seems to describe what you are seeing on your trees:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef404.asp

By: lyn

lyn — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:08:31 +0000

No idea what it is, but it puts me in mind of a short story I recently read, “The Golden Helix” by Theodore Sturgeon, which inverted my understanding of evolutionary theory.

By: tumors

tumors — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:01:24 +0000

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By: fred

fred — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:50:13 +0000

Thanks for this, let me know if you find links to images (of mites or their galls–hadn’t known mites produced galls!). Much appreciated. I’m going to see if I can figure out the tree too, as it is not one I know offhand. Failing that, may post a better picture of leaf only to the blog, please sing out if you can ID it!

By: Tree

Tree — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:43:31 +0000

I think your tree might have eriophyid mites, which produce those characteristic red galls on tree leaves. The galls are unsightly but don’t seem to harm the tree. Ironically I can’t seem to find a reference for these critters here in our Entomology department at Virginia Tech.

By: Sissy Willis

Sissy Willis — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:41:51 +0000

The image is actually quite wonderful, setting the imagination to wandering, from Seurat’s “Un dimanche après-midi à l’Ile de la Grande Jatte” — http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/seurat/grande-jatte/seurat.grande-jatte.jpg — to a developer’s subdivision of former farm fields.