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? Coccid insect gall
A thickened section of a stem on a eucalyptus tree with multiple raised openings, some with dried-up "plugs".
Eucalyptus tree- stringy bark
These are galls possibly made by scale insects of the Coccidae family - this needs confirmation. The appearance of the galls suggest that they are old; the openings were dry and some had woody plugs. Here are similar stem galls but with spikey outgrowths http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/123... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/140...
Spotted on Oct 13, 2012
Submitted on Oct 14, 2012
4 Comments
Martin, you sure are correct and thanks for the weblink. I looked at another species of Eriococcid insect - Tanyscelis sp that produces stem galls. Although these produce conical eruptions,they seem to be solitary and are not as distinctive as the linear arrangement we have. I understand that they both belong to Coccoidea but why are Eriococcids also referred to as Coccids in some literature - very confusing !
Leuba, this pimple like eruption (from leaf tissue) is the closest that I can find http://myrmecos.net/insects/Opisthosceli... This supports your ID suggestion but I remain quite uncertain.
Martin, It surprised me too that there were only PN spottings on Google. I was frantically searching your spottings for an ID !! :)
My dissections have shed no light onto this mysterious and distinctive parasite. We've seen these several times and I am rather surprised to see no other images of them on google than our three PN spottings.