Thursday, August 4, 2022

Gall (Gall Wasp?) Searsport, Maine

There are a few of these fuzzy galls on the underside of the leaves of the maple tree that is next to our RV. I hadn’t noticed galls like this before…all of the others had smooth surfaces rather than fuzzy as these ones are.

Galls are an abnormal growth of a plant in reaction to chemicals injected by insects while laying their eggs on (in) the plant. Galls don’t usually kill the plants.

There are many insect species that induce galls. The insects are very specifically adapted to a particular plant species. They must inject exactly the right chemicals to “trick” the plant into producing a structure that will protect and nourish their larvae.

This particular type of gall was about the size of my pinky nail.