A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
All flower pods on this silver banksia (Banksia marginata) were deformed - they appeared dark nodular and dry, with only a few seed pods visible. The rest of the tree looked quite healthy.
Spotted in a small reserve along NSW coast.
Thanks to martinl for this tentative ID. Mesostoa kerri does not appear to be the cause of these galls and my thanks to l.cook for the correction. This needs further investigation. M.kerri is a brachonid wasp that causes gall formation on Banksia marginata stems - I need to find the one that causes galls on flowers/inflorescence.
Spotted on Aug 12, 2013
Submitted on Aug 24, 2013
6 Comments
Correction to my earlier note. This is a B. marginata and not B.integrifolia.
My thanks to l.cook for the correction. i need to follow-up o this.
Probably not Mesostoa kerri. The website link Martin provided has images similar to this, and the website indicates this to be the causative species. However, if you follow the link to CSIRO, which is given as a source for identification, it leads to a paper about this species. The galls shown in the scientific paper are quite different and show that M. kerri affect the stem, rather than the inflorescence.
Thanks Martin. I'll go with it for now although i am unsure whether the species of banksia is B. marginata or B. integrifolia. Mine looks like the latter.
Looks a good candidate Martin.
Mesostoa kerri ?
http://ramin.com.au/annandale/veg-banksi...