Photo taken in Highwoods Park, Colchester, 22 March 2006, by Maria Fremlin.
Photo taken in Highwoods Park, Colchester, 22 March 2006, by Maria Fremlin.
Initially we were very puzzled by this unexpected find; we simply didn't know what it could be. Finally this was solved when Dr Jerry Bowdrey, the curator of Colchester Natural History Museum, a gall expert, identified them.
Note how the root isn't growing past the galls. Interesting, isn't it?
Since then I've learned that the oak apple gall wasp Biorhiza pallida has a very interesting life cycle. Male and female wasps emerge from the galls on oak branches in June-July, they mate, and afterwords the females burrow into the ground and lay their eggs on fine oak roots. The galls that develop in these roots are of females only, which upon emergence in the spring will climb up the tree trunk and lay eggs parthenogenically on the fresh oak twigs; these females are wingless. Each of these twig galls have inside many male and female larvae, which will pupate inside it prior to emerging.
Questions:
1 - In the photo the root doesn't seem to be growing past the galls. Why?
2 - What is the evolutionary advantage for the wasps of having alternate generations?
As a result of this find, I've become fascinated by galls and I've managed to learn a lot in the process.
Links:
Biorhiza pallida (Olivier 1791), Encyclopedia of Life.
Hainault Forest Website - Illustrations of the many galls hosted by the Pedunculate Oak Quercus robur.
Further reading:
Plant Galls - by
Margaret Redfern and RR Askew, 1998. Series: Naturalists' Handbooks 17. Richmond Publishing.
Last modified: Tues Jan 23 2018
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