Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall

The inducer of this gall is unknown or undescribed.
Family: Cynipidae | Genus: Unknown
Detachable: detachable
Color: red, white, green, black
Texture: hairless
Abundance:
Shape: globular
Season: Fall
Related:
Alignment:
Walls:
Location: lower leaf, leaf midrib, on leaf veins
Form:
Cells:
Possible Range:i
Common Name(s):
Synonymy:
Slide 1 of 2
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall
image of Unknown q-rubra-globular-vein-gall

Gallformers ID Notes

One or a pair of small, globular galls bursting out of splits on the lower side of leaf midribs on Quercus rubra in Boston, Massachusetts. When the galls first appear in August-September, they are light colored, but darken to red and nearly black over time. They are almost perfectly spherical in shape and tethered to the midrib by a pedicel-like structure. Their texture is slightly bumpy but hairless. The splits they emerge from are small and subtle compared to the bulges formed by species like Callirhytis piperoides or Dryocosmus deciduus on similar hosts in the fall.

This may be a Zopheroteras, possibly Z hubbardi.

The "type" observation
The same gall a week later

Other observations made nearby:
1
2
3

Similar galls on Quercus rubra have also been reported from Newton, Massachusetts, Michigan 2, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, and Ohio 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

- Gallformers Contributors: (2023) Gallformers ID Notes©


Further Information:
Pending...

See Also:
Unless noted otherwise in the ID Notes, observations of this gall are collected in the Observation Field Gallformers Code with value q-rubra-globular-vein-gall on iNaturalist. You can view them here:
iNaturalist logo