Real bonus on my last day away: #Plantgalls of the #Beech Gall Midge Mikiola fagi. Found in the woods overlooking the bend of the River Teme around Ludlow. I've never seen this gall in the UK, although as it's common in continental Europe I've got records from France, Germany and Austria.
It apparently disappeared in Britain for around 60 years from the late 1950s. It then cropped up in widely separated localities such as the Chilterns near Acton Rowant and Edinburgh.
Gall mites of a small wasp are overtaking a small oak tree.
This'll do some damage. The lowest exposed part of the trunk is not a great bit of the tree to be part of a gallfest.. :-|
Probably Andricus testaceipes
Some more Wollaton Park galls for @fowp a short π§΅
On Bracken :
* Little Black Puddings Dasineura pteridis (=filicina), swollen rolled and blackened pinnule (from previous years)
* Chirosia grossicauda, curled up end of pinna
* Aceria preridis : curled up and abnormally hairy ends of pinna (first time I've ever seen it)
Bonus pot Beetle Cryptocephalus sp. too
#GallWeek September 2024 comes to an end. I didn't quite make my target of 100 different galls (count is on 96 with 1 or 2 to come) : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=gall-week-september-2024&subview=table&user_id=sk53
It was a bit frustrating failing to find galls from locations they were seen earlier in the year, but I also managed to explore a little further afield this year. Helped by free OAP travel.
Highlights were : Alder Tongue, evidence of spread of Dasineura aceris on Silver Maple, Pseudoneuroterus saliens and Euura viminalis #PlantGalls
@fowp Of course you can. The records are all on iNaturalist (with a view older ones: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=52.9544763836614&nelng=-1.196930503298974&project_id=plant-galls-of-britain-ireland&subview=map&swlat=52.94015071697601&swlng=-1.2246538156769038), and I think all the photos are licenced CC-BY-SA on there, including Timaspis. I've even got one or two gall records from the Arbour Oak.
About 9 years ago I had a productive session looking for galls in the Hall Gardens with the late Peter Cooke of Coventry & District Natural History Society. Felt gall on Holm Oaks should be obvious. #PlantGalls #GallWeek #GallWeek2024 #Nottingham
This week, starting yesterday, is Gall Week on #iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-september-2024.
Observations are welcomed from anywhere in the world, although timing favours peak gall season in temperate Northern hemisphere. To add them requires joining the project and then adding them explicitly (a 'traditional' project). Worth having a go if you use iNaturalist and see galls casually.
Here are some of mine from yesterday.
Welcome to our 6th Gall Week event! Please add any new gall observations taken between September 7-15 to this project manually. Galls are structures induced by arthropods, fungi, and sometimes bacteria on plants. Please do not document here leaf miners or other evidence of feeding, unless they are gall-related. To participate, please join the project, document new observations between 9/7-15, and upload them manually to the project. Uploading observations can continue after the event ends as long as they were documented during that week. Don't forget to add information about the host plant - as a note, or even better, in the fields: Host and Host plant ID field. You can also link to the host plant observation, especially if you aren't sure what it was. Please do share your observations even if you are new to iNaturalist, and not sure yet how to use some of these features. If you're new to galling, you can check what are the best host plants in your area. You can use gall or insect b...
Found an interesting looking Oak Gall today, possibly Dyer's Gall Andricus infectorius. It is the elongated sphere with bumpy bits. The gall alongside is Ram's-horn Gall.
First found in Britain in 2012, but not recognised until later. Can be easily confused with Marble Gall.
SK53
Pepijn
Chris Davenport
Ian Hunt