acacia apple galls (flower galls)

Description:

This long leaved acacia was covered with small apple like green and maroon galls. Each gall showed small flowers bursting through the outer skins of these galls. Seen on the galls were and scampering along the branches were several austral ellipsidion cockroaches.

Habitat:

Nature Reserve - Acacia longifolia ( long leaved acacia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_long...

Notes:

There were no flower stalks seen on the tree. I assume that all flower stalks were attacked by the gall wasp Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae-making the flower stalks swell and incorporating the flowers. Or, the gall wasp had laid eggs in the flowers where the galls first formed ??.....The little australian ellipsidion cockroaches were perhaps feeding on the pollen from the flowers. For information on the ellipsidion: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/139...