Aylax glechomae
Hosts: Glechoma hederacea
Galls. — Rounded galls (Figs. 1 and 2) on the leaves, petioles, or stems of Nepeta (Glechoma) hederacea, the ground-ivy (gill-over-the-ground). Monothalamous, or several galls fused. Each gall is 6-12 mm., more or less, in diameter, rounded, covered with a rather dense, stiff pubescence, reddish and green when young; when old becoming dry, brown, smooth, with a thin, papery covering separating more or less or entirely lost from the gall during the winter. The larval cell is central, held in place by rather abundant, very irregular, coarse fibers.
Range: Europe. ME, MA, CT, NY, NJ, OH, IN, IL
Mayr first pointed out the synonymy of the European glechomae and Bassett's similis. The species was undoubtedly introduced into America from Europe, for its host, the ground-ivy, is of European origin.
The galls appear in late May or early June. In this young condition they are eaten in France. The galls mature in late July and, as the plants begin dying off in September, the dried galls drop to the ground where they overwinter, being in large part decayed by springtime. The galls are heavily parasitized. The insects mature in the fall and overwinter as adults, not emerging, however, until the following April or May. Adler proved, by experimentally raising successive generations, that there is no alternation of generations with the species and, since the male is unknown, it is likely that reproduction is purely agamic, the eggs never being fertilized.
