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These galls were firm nodular thickenings on both sides of the leaf blades. They showed enlarged glands and were paler than the normal leaf surface. The insides of the galls had a series of chambers. I spotted a dark larva in one chamber. Some chambers were empty and some others had pupae ( pic 6)
Spotted on a gum tree. I suspected it was Corymbia but Dr Lyn Cook has advised that it is not.
My thanks to John La Salle for his input on this spotting. He confirms that the white pupa is that of a wasp but explains that it is difficult to determine whether it is that of the gall architect or a parasitoid without breeding them out.
The galls were very different to the Fergusonina fly galls seen in
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/896...
Spotted on Apr 3, 2015
Submitted on Apr 4, 2015
4 Comments
Thank you l.cook. Will keep that in mind.
The venation of the leaf looks wrong for Corymbia - it should have finely spaced parallel veins.
Thank you so much John La Salle. I can understand the difficulty with this. Some of the fresh galls had minute holes in them and I wondered if they had been parasitised.
Hi Leuba
It is often very difficult to tell what makes these Australian galls without rearing them. The pupa in pic 6 is definitely a wasp - but whether it is the gall former or a parasitoid of the gall former can be quite difficult to determine.