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Fly gall on Eucalyptus

Family: Diptera

Photo by Leuba Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Looking like a miniature bok choy (chinese cabbage) these pea-sized galls with a bulbous base and cluster of leaves at the free end, were seen at the axils on this young eucalyptus tree. A cut section of the thick part of the gall revealed a white "crunchy" core with a unilocular chamber in the centre.
A white translucent larva about 2 mm long was seen in the cavity. The head end of the larva showed two minute black specks on either side of the midline.

Habitat:

Spotted on a broad-leaved eucalyptus sapling (pic 6). Spotted about 3 or 4 of these on the one sapling.

Notes:

I am not able to find any matches for this and have never seen such galls before. This particular sapling was heavily attacked by nolid caterpillars (Uraba lugens).

Looks like a fly gall . Need to ID. <br>

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (3)
Leuba Ridgway
Martin, if you see this spotting again, you were right. Looks like I a dipteran gall, Found the same sapling and dissected another gall - found the larva inside. Do you recognise the type ? I will keep looking.
Leuba Ridgway
Martin, I am almost certain that the little fast moving "nymph" came from inside the gall but I might be able to find these galls again and check it out once more. One thing made me wonder though, the size of the cavity was perhaps a little too large for the nymph. I was hoping L.Cook might get to see this one.
MartinL
I do think these galls are the same as mine. I suspected a hymenoptera or diptera wth a larviform larva inside but I didn't investigate :( Your psyllid is either a random free living one or if it is the cause of the gall, its quite intriguing.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Nests, hives, bowers, webs & other animal architecture

Tags

Photographed
PublishedSeptember 20, 2014

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