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Common Name: Woolly Oak Gall Wasp,
Cynipid Gall Wasp Latin Name:
Andricus ignotus Bassett 1900
(S.
Digweed, det.)
Length: ~2.5 mm
Range: Wherever Bur Oak
is present
Habitat:
Various
Time of year seen: Adults:
March to April, Galls: Summer to Fall
Hosts: Bur Oak & other Members of the White Oak Group
Other: The asexual generation of the oak-gallling cynipid wasp A.
ignotus forms elongate woolly growths (galls) along the veins on the
underside of leaves on trees in the white oak group (in Alberta typically
Bur Oak). Color variations of the galls range from white to red with
some having a striped appearance. The woolly material covers the small
feeding cells of these minute insects. Adult wasps emerge early in the
spring and oviposit their eggs in the buds of oaks. As the season
progresses the galls form and are shed with the leaves in the fall to over
winter. This species of gall wasp is commonly attacked by parasitoids in the
family
Eulophidae. The galls can be common and have no significant effect
on the tree. (Digweed, S.;
Hahn, J (U of M))
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