Gall forming Insects

Definition

• The term gall is applied, in a broad sense, to any abnormal growth of plant
or animal caused by another organism.

• A gall defined as an abnormal growth of plant tissue produced by a

stimulus external to the plant itself.

• Insect galls are growths that develop on various plants in reaction to the
feeding stimulus of insects.
Features and formations
 Insects and mites are chief causative agents of plant cells.

• Normally the blackberry stem is slender and the oak leaf is flat. The gall maker changes
the stem of the blackberry into a woody knot and the oak leaf into an apple.

• It is often difficult to determine where boring ends and gall making begins.

• Cryptorhyncus lapathi is a typical borer of poplar, nevertheless, the bark often thicken at
the point of injury to create a gall-like formation.

• So it is difficult, at times, to differentiate between leaf mining and gall making. Both
habits may be exhibited by the same species.

• Agromyza laterella produce a gall on the young developing leaves of iris but a mine on
the mature leaves.

• The tendency of plants to overcome injury often results in callousing which in sense, is a
gall formation.

Economic Importance of Galls

 Tannic acid is one of the chief products obtained from galls.

 Tannic acid is used in the production of nicotine tannate, an insecticide applied against
the codling moth an other insects.

 tannins are obtained from various source but the greatest supply comes from galls

A gall produced by an Eurasian cynipid (wasp) yield 65% of tannic acid.

 The North American species yield less.

 Our native sumac gall yields about 50% of tannic acid.

 Dyes are obtained from numerous galls.

 The native of East Africa use galls as source of dye for tattooing.

 Aleppo gall used to dye the hair black

 The best permanent ink have for years been made from galls.

 Aleppo gall , produced by cynips gallae-tictoriae on several species of in Eastern Europe

and Western Asia, is the one of the chief sources of the ingredients for ink.

 In some places, the law requires that permanent record s be made with ink derived from
gallnuts.

 Galls have frequently been used in medicine.

 The use of galls in medicine is mentioned in various pharmacopoeias.

 During the eighteenth century, they were used in France to control fevers.

 Today they have little use in medicine although they are still used in the preparation of
unguentumgalae.
  Galls have occasionally been used as food.

 In the Near East a gall on salvia pomifera, produced by species of aylax.

 It is esteemed for its aromatic and acid flavor and is said to be especially delicious when
prepared with honey and sugar.

 The galls on another cynipid (Gall wasp) Aulax glechomae, which attack Glechoma
hederacea used as food in France, it is said that they have an agreeable taste and the
sweet odour of the host plant.

 Missouri and Arkansas, a black cynipid gall has been used as food for domestic animals.

Common Gall pests

 Gall insects may be exceedingly injurious to crops.

 Hessian fly, clover leaf midges, chrysanthemum midge, and pear leaf, blister mite are
common gall pests.

Extend of gall making habit

 Majority of the plant galls are produced by nematodes, mites and insects.

 The gall making habit is scattered throughout six orders of insects: Coleoptera,
Lepidoptera, Homoptera, Thysanoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera.

 Gall insects attack nearly all parts of the plant: buds, Leaves, petioles, flower heads,
stems, bark, and roots.

 The host and the portion attacked are often characteristic and are a great aid in identifying
species.

 Gall makers usually produce the same type of gall on different hosts. There are
exceptions: for example, camptoneuromyia rubifolia produces a spot gall on similax but
a leaf roll on Rubus.
 Different species working on the same plant usually produce entire dissimilar types of
galls.

 The cynipid wasp attack chiefly the oak: they work to some extent on the rose and rarely
make galls on other plants.

 The gall making plant lice live on a variety of hosts. Phylloxera are conspicuous on the
hickories. The grape phylloxera is the best known species.

 The mites from their gall largely on woody plants, especially the willows, maples, birch
and roses.

 Galls are often exceedingly upon individual trees or plants.

 Estimate that several cynipid wasps were living at the expense of one oak tree.

 Another cynipid wasp so abundant on large pin oak that the sweet exudation from the gall
attracted hosts of bees and flies. The twigs of these oaks were literally covered in part
with minute, tubular galls.
  Psyllid, coccid, and aphid galls are often minute and tend to be exceedingly numerous
their hosts.

The Gall as a dwelling place

 The larval often the pupal period is spend in the gall, which serve as a shelter and as a
source of food.

 The insect obtain some relief from parasites and predators, and is protected from
desiccation.

 The inner wall of the gall are often richer in protein than the portion of plants upon which
it grows and thus the larva or nymph finds an abundance of concentrated food there.

 Many inquilines (is an animal that lives commensally in the nest) utilize insect galls,
some feed upon the extra food available, others are transient visitors.

 The pinecone willow gall has been studied in considerable details, Hendel lists 31
dwellers in addition to the gall maker, 10 inquilines, 16 parasites, and 5 transients.

 In North America, The larvae of Lepidoptera, Sawflies, Cynipid wasps, and midges are
common guests, and the egg of meadow grasshopper are frequently found between the
scales of the pinecone willow gall .

 Many Coleoptera inhabit galls, a dozen species of Curculionidae found in the galls of
cynipid wasps.

Origin of Galls
 The gall making habit has developed independently in widely separated groups.

 There are only outstanding groups of gall makers; Eriophyds, cynipids and the midges.

 The habit may developed in different ways in these groups, believes that it had its origin
through the fungus feeding or predacious habit. This is probably true in Ceicidomyiidae.
Where both types of feeding are represented.
  There are also indications that the habit may have arisen through the leaf rolling habit.
This may have taken place in the Eriophyidae,

 Where many species Roll leaves and others form blisters like galls.

 The leaf-mining and the gall-making habits are closely associated

 Many of the leaf miners there is some proliferation of galls not sufficient to be
conspicuous but enough to indicate a tendency in gall formation.

 The spot galls produced by the Cecidomyiidae are borderline forms.

 Monarthropalpus buxi is usually considered as a leaf miner, the leaf shows considerable
development of cells and a thickening about the injury.

Types of galls

2 Types

[Link] gall

2. Closed gall

Open gall
 Open galls are produced by haustellate (sucking mouthparts) forms: aphids, psyllids,
coccids, and mites.

 Examples are the pear leaf blister mite, (Eriophyes pyri), the witch hazel cone gall maker
(F.p) , (Hormaphis hamamelidis) and elm cockscombgall maker, (Colopha ulmicola).

 These forms first feed from the outside but later cause the leaf to fold or grow inward to
produce a pocket in which the insects live and feed.

 Reproduction occurs within the galls and the young escape through a small opening on
the lower surface of the leaf.
  The tubular galls made by the midges resemble cone galls but are closed type.

 The witch hazel cone gall maker and one of the many species of Homoptera that make
open galls.

 The life history of this species somewhat complicated and like that of most aphids, reveal
alternation of generation, parthenogenesis and the production of wingless generations.

 The eggs of the witch hazel cone gall maker are laid upon the branches and twigs of the
witch hazel.

 They hatch early in the spring and the stem mother (wingless females) then they migrates
to the lower surface of leaves.

 In some way, the feeding nymph causes the upper surface of the leaf to thicken and to
develop into conical growths.

 The interior of the cones are hollow and openings remain to the exterior on the lower
surface of the leaf.

 The female produce their young within these galls.

Closed gall
 Closed galls are made by the larvae of mandibulate insects: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera,
Diptera and Hymenoptera.

 None produces young in the galls.

 The majority of galls are simple (monothalamus), that is they contain but a single larvae.

 A few are compound (polythalamus), that is each galls contains several larvae in separate
cells or chambers.

 The spherical goldenroad gall produced by Eurosta solidaginis, is a typical and common
example of a closed galls.

 In some localities nearly every goldenrod stem bears one or two galls.

 The fly a member of the family trupaneidae is pretty insect with pictured wing. The
female lays her eggs upon the surface of the goldenrod stems.

 The larvae wander somewhat before they enter the stems but eventually they bore into the
stems and cause the formation of galls.

 New galls become apparent about June, the insects remain in the galls during the winter.

 The numbers of galls are produced by the egg lying habits of certain insects, as for
example, the snowy tree cricket, cicadas, tree hoppers or leaf hoppers.
  These insects frequently insert their eggs in the twigs of trees, making more or less
conspicuous mark.

Adaptation for the gall making habits

 The most conspicuous adaptations are found in the plant rather than the insects.

 Certain remarkable changes occur in the plant, following the attack by the gall maker.

 Tannin and other unpalatable substances are formed which antagonize feeding by other
species.

 Hairs and spines are often developed on the surface of the gall.

 The walls of the gall are sometimes much thicker and harder than the plant itself.

 The portion of the plant attacked is frequently modified in color and shape to resemble
flower, fruits, seeds.

 The gall making habit occurs in groups of insects that are typically Phytophagous.

 Some mechanism of the egg, larvae or adult , still little known, is essential to start the
formation of the gall.

 The larvae and nymphs of gall making species usually show a reduction of antennae and
legs.

 In the mites, antennae are minute and the legs are reduced to two, instead of the
customary four pair.

 The bodies of the gall inhabiting species are also elongate.

 The hymenoptera are typically legless.

 The Homoptera show considerable reduction in antennae and legs.

 The gall inhabiting phylloxera have minute legs and antennae.

 The group of Coleoptera containing the gall making species is legless by nature.
Physiology of gall formation
 It is generally believed that the stimulus of gall formation is a secretion from the larva
and that it is not due to a mechanical or an chemical irritation produced by the female at
the time the egg is laid.

 In the case of goldenrod gall and other similar species, the gall does not start to develop
until the larva has done considerable feeding.

 Galls are formed only on meristematic tissues.

 Galls are the results of cell multiplication, which cannot takes place after a leaf or stem
has become mature or fixed.

 A large proportion of the galls begin their development in the bud and many are
inflorescent.

 Galls are more abundant during spring and early summer, although they may persist until
far or even remain on the trees or plants during the winter.

 Leaf miners, in contrast are more abundant during the middle of the latter part of the
summer.

 Active tissues may be fond in certain part of the plants during the entire season.

 The cambium is always present in living trees.

 Leaves often retain small areas of meristematic tissue after they have expanded and
hardened.

 These area are capable of gall formation.

 In wooly oak galls with embedded seed like grains.

Classification of galls By Orders

 Diptera
 This order include largest number of the gall making insects, family Cecidomyiidae
(Hessian fly), chrysanthemum midge, clover leaf midges.

 Trupaneidae; the majority of these species make solid galls on the buds, stems and roots
of goldenrod.

 The Oscinidae produce incospicuous galls on various grasses.

 Agromyzidae are predominantly phytophagous and are composed largely of leaf mining
species, some cambium miners, pith and stem miners, and few gall makers.

 Four species of Agromyzidae produce definite galls : Agromyza tiliac on lindens and lime
, A. schineri on populus, A. laterlla on iris.

 Hymenoptera

 Hymenoptera constitute one of the most important groups of gall making-insects.

 It is exceeded in number of species Diptera.

 The majority of the species belong to the family Cynipidae.

 Forms of Cynipid galls are, some are butterfly like, fruit like, woody, mossy.

 Both simple and compound galls produced by the Cynipid wasp and few species
produced both types.

 Tenthrenidae show tendency towards leaf mining and boring.

 The Eurytomidae, Torymidae and Chalcididae are seed feeders.

 The Cephidae bore in the stems of plants, dwarf and stunt their growth, and some time
cause gall like enlargements.

 Coleoptera

 Scarcely more than 12 North American species of beetles make definite galls.

 These are scattered among the families Curulionidae , Buprestidae and Cerambycidae.
 The Curculionidae include several economic species: pine gall weevil, podapion
gallicola, grape cane gall maker, Ampeloglypter sesostris and virginia creeper stem gall
are the well known example.

 Buprestidae like wise contain many injurious species : Red necked cane borer, Agrilus
ruficollis , rasp berry cane bore, oberea bimaculata and the bronzed birch borer, Agrillus
anxius, are common form.

 Cerambicidae contain a few gall making species although wood boring is the
predominant habit in this group.

 The gall making maple borer Nylothrecus aceris, often become a pest.

 Saperda concolor and Saperda populnea produce gall on the branches of poplar and
willow.

 Lepidoptera

 The largest number of gall making Lepidoptera belongs to the genus Gnorimoschema.

 These species make gall on the stem of goldenrod.

 One species produce galls on the roots of asters.

 Occasional gall making species are found in the species Aegerridae, Tineidae,
Olethreutidae, Lavernidae and Pyralididae.

 The injury inflicted varies with the position of the gall and the thriftiness of the vine.

 When the larva forms its gall in a sturdy stalk, no injury results; when it works in a small
stalk near the tip, the terminal portion often dries and wilts.

 Homoptera

 47 Aphidae, 11 psyllidae, and 2 cocidae are recorded as gall makers.

 All produce cone galls, usually of the pocket or cone type.

 Galls are often small and thickly placed on the leaves, eg. Grape phylloxera.

 This interesting species produces one form of gall on the leaves and another on the roots.

 The elm cockscomb gall, colopha ulmicola, produce a large pocket gall on the upper side
of the leaf.

 The woolly apple aphid, Eriosoma lanigerum, Produces nodules on the roots which are
frequently termed galls.

 Several species of psyllidae produce galls on the leaves and stems of hackberry.