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| In northwest Louisiana, you might recently have seen these odd, bumpy ball-shaped objects. This weekend in the arboretum, there were quite a few of these things on the ground; students were even commenting on them! They are large, measuring approximately two inches across, and if you dare to hold one in your hand, you will find that they are surprisingly lightweight. These are called galls. |
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These galls have an irregular, round shape, and they have a very bumpy surface texture. But, it's not what's on the outside that matters, it's what's inside... [viewer discretion is advised!]
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The papery surface cracks open to reveal a nexus of white strands.
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All three galls have similar interiors.
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| We see thin, white, fuzzy strands connected at a dense white center. So, then, what's at the center? We've come this far, let's not turn back now... |
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We inspected the contents of all three galls. The dense white centers were hard and we broke them open with a little bit of force. Inside the first gall, a nearly insignificantly tiny, white, squishy, wriggling being was discovered. Inside the second gall, tiny, dark insect pieces were discernible but not photographable. Luckily, inside the third gall, something bigger, but still quite small, was found―it's the dark shape in the above photograph. It has wings and legs and appears to be an insect; presumably it's a species of wasp.
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In this photo, we can see more of the wings. Three wasps, at varying stages of development, died for the purpose of this blog post; however, it's unlikely that the galls would have remained intact for much longer, as it is almost time to mow the grass-weeds-wildflowers.
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Check out the following links for more information about oak galls:
"Galls on Oak Trees" by R. Keith Collins (LSU AgCenter)
"Galls on Oaks: Entomology Insect Notes" by Steven Frank, James Baker and Stephen Bambara (NC State Extension)
