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Superfamily = Chalcidoidea
A large prolific stem gall on a young eucalyptus contained many chambers with a small flying insect in various stages of development. I suspected flies but we can confirm wasps. Stand by for better photographs. The final picture added 24/September is a live adult male, just emerged.
Chalcidoidea wasps. Thank you Stephen for ID. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/r... Ormocerinae http://bugguide.net/node/view/265572/bgp... Some Fergusonia sp. flies induce similar plant galls and have a symbiotic relationship with nematodes. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/804...
Spotted on Sep 9, 2013
Submitted on Sep 9, 2013
8 Comments
martini,for you to count.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/378...
Yes, Steve, this was found on Eucalyptus. I have corrected the error.
Note that the plant is stated to be Acacia, not Eucalyptus..
These are probably in the genus Terobiella - which are considered to be gall-inducers on various species of Eucalyptus. I am basing this mainly on the branched antenna in the male - which is apparently distinctive for this genus (at least within the Ormocerinae).
The wasps are indeed chalcids - family Pteromalidae, subfamily Ormocerinae, tribe Melanosomellini. This is a small group (mostly Australian) which are generally associated with galls - and may be the gall inducer, parasitoids or inquilines. There are only one or two genera in this group where the males have branched antenna (see top left wasp in your figure 4). I will try to remember to have a look in Boucek 1988 Australasian Chalcidoidea when I get to work tomorrow to see if I can put a generic name on this.
Thanks Stephen. I will try to grow some live adults from the gall to get a better photo. I understand there may be a secondary infestation. Thank you for your suggestions.
These are wasps in the superfamily Chalcidoidea. But they could be parasitoids of the gall inducers.
We need a Galls of the World mission! Or, maybe we already have one ...