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Mantis religiosa ootheca
parasitic organism found on a tree
residential
may be a fungi
Spotted on May 13, 2013
Submitted on May 13, 2013
2 Comments
I agree with John. This looks like an Oak Gall. Mantis Ootheca are not fuzzy. This reminds me a lot of a Wood Sower gall, Callirhytis seminator:
Here is an image similar to yours:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/515345
Bugguide page for this species:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/180960
Take a look and see what you think.
If that is an oak tree I suspect it might be a Cynipidae gall. Cynipids (gall wasps) can inducer a variety of different gall forms - mainly on oaks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall_wasp
If you want to check you can always cut it open. if it is a gall it will be woody under the fuzz, with one to several chambers containing wasp larvae or pupae.