Gall Dwelling Insects - Our Winter Study

Our gall study has been going on for several months now and we have gathered quite a few different kinds of galls during our hikes. Some of the galls are really small but once we know what we are looking for we can look for the signs on the oaks. During the winter, the galls are more noticeable because there are far less leaves to deal with. Our local forest is a mix of evergreen and deciduous oaks so we still have plenty of leaves to check but not as many as the middle of summer.

I think the key to finding galls is to know what you are looking for. Check the links in the original challenge if you have any trouble getting started.

The California Gall Wasp is only 1/8" to 1/4" in size...far too small to probably ever be recognized or identified but we do know what their gall looks like. It is the big gall in the top image and you can clearly see the exit holes. Fascinating stuff. 



We took time to observe the smaller galls under our microscope. It truly is a completely different world under the lens of a microscope. Amazing...even a hand lens will open that world up.



There is so much to learn about this topic, reaching into insect study and tree study.


Mr. B finished up his gall study with a notebook page for his nature journal. We used the links in the challenge and our insect field guide. That is something that wasn't mentioned in the original challenge. We look up "wasps" in the back and found the listing for gall wasps (which are in the family Cynipidae). We read how there are 150 species of wasps that make galls on California oaks! That is exactly why I feel like we have only scratched the surface of this topic.

Let me know if you have any trouble getting started on this challenge or if you need some help finding information once you do find something you think is a gall. I will do my best to help.

Searching for Leaf-Miners and Leaf-Rollers

We found quite a bit of leaf damage on the oaks in our backyard...nothing that really looked like leaf-miners though. We looked carefully which is part of what this challenge (More Nature Study #2 Leaf-Miners and Rollers) was all about.Taking time to really look and see the leaves opens up lots of interesting thoughts and ideas.  Who caused the damage? Were they nibbled by insects or something else like the birds that frequent our yard?

The preparation work from the Handbook of Nature Study really helped us with this challenge.



We went around to the garden side of the yard and started to look at the shrubs there and we think we found several leaves that had been rolled up by insects. This one looks close to what we were looking for so we are going to assume it is our subject for this challenge. Amazing that I never noticed this leaf-rolling in our own backyard until now! What else am I missing?



Now in the front yard we have a different kind of oak and we were able to see clearly some damage done by some insect...perhaps a leaf-miner. We couldn't find any leaves that had insects working on them currently but these looked promising enough to bring a few inside to look at under the magnifying lens.



Here is one image (through the magnifying lens) that was super pretty, almost looked like stained glass.When you hold the leaf up to the light as suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study it is even more beautiful. My husband was wondering what I was looking at and I had to share with him too. He was fascinated by our topic and since he spends lots of time outdoors as part of his job, he is going to keep an eye out for some more leaves to look at with the hand lens.



Another image up-close at what we think may be what we were looking for this week.

So there you have it...our leaf-miner and leaf-roller study in our own yard. Amazing that we could find it right under out noses. I think that is the lesson I learned from reading the entries to the Blog Carnival for this challenge from different families.....total amazement that they could even find this subject so close to home.

If you haven't taken the time to give this challenge a try yet, there is still plenty of time to do so. Make it an investigation after reading the information in the Handbook of Nature Study. Take your magnifying glass with you outdoors to look at the suggested plants (see Lesson 77 in the HNS).


We also observed some oak galls which are covered in Lesson 79 in the Handbook of Nature Study. These are interesting to observe as well and surprising to most that they are actually signs of an insect.

Make sure to submit your Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival entries soon. The deadline will be this coming Thursday, September 29, 2011. The carnival will be posted on Friday.

Urchins on Oaks?

We took our usual walk the other day but we found something unusual.

These little pink growths were attached all over the leaves on the ground and we brought one home to identify it. I had an idea that it was gall of some sort but I thought it would be interesting to see if we could come up with an exact identification.


I Googled "pink gall oak" and here are a few of the things I found.

CalPhotos: Urchin Gall
Bingo!

Nature's Oddballs
Fascinating article with a great explanation of galls.


So there you have it.
Urchin Gall Wasp Antron quercusechinus

"There are many forms of these gall dwellings, and they may grow upon the root, branch, leaf, blossom, or fruit. The miraculous thing about each of them is that each kind of insect builds its magical house on a certain part of a certain species of tree or plant; and the house is always of a certain definite form on the outside and of a certain particular pattern within."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 335

You can read more about galls in the Handbook on pages 335-338.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Note to self: The Nature Handbook, page 49-50