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Gall
Galls (from the Latin galla, 'oak-apple') or cecidia (from the Greek kēkidion, anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or warts in animals. They can be caused by various parasites, from viruses, fungi and bacteria, to other plants, insects and mites. Plant galls can be such highly organized structures that their cause can be determined without the actual agent being identified. This applies particularly to insect and mite plant galls. The study of plant galls is known as cecidology.
Plant galls are caused by a wide range of organisms, including animals such as insects, mites, and nematodes; fungi; bacteria; viruses; and other plants.
Insect galls are the highly distinctive plant structures formed by some herbivorous insects as their own microhabitats. They are plant tissue which is controlled by the insect. Galls act as both the habitat and food source for the maker of the gall. The interior of a gall can contain edible nutritious starch and other tissues. Some galls act as "physiologic sinks", concentrating resources in the gall from the surrounding plant parts. Galls may also provide the insect with physical protection from predators.
Insect galls are usually induced by chemicals injected by the larvae of the insects into the plants and possibly mechanical damage. After the galls are formed, the larvae develop inside until fully grown, when they leave. To form galls, the insects must take advantage of the time when plant cell division occurs quickly: the growing season, usually spring in temperate climates, but which is extended in the tropics.
The meristems, where plant cell division occurs, are the usual sites of galls, though insect galls can be found on other parts of the plant, such as the leaves, stalks, branches, buds, roots, and even flowers and fruits. Gall-inducing insects are usually species-specific and sometimes tissue-specific on the plants they gall.
Gall-inducing insects include gall wasps, gall midges, gall flies, leaf-miner flies, aphids, scale insects, psyllids, thrips, gall moths, and weevils.
Many gall insects remain to be described. Estimates range up to more than 210,000 species, not counting parasitoids of gall-forming insects.
More than 1400 species of cynipid wasps cause galls. Some 1000 of these are in the tribe Cynipini, their hosts mostly being oak trees and other members of the Fagaceae (the beech tree family). These are often restricted taxonomically to a single host species or a group of related species.
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Gall
Galls (from the Latin galla, 'oak-apple') or cecidia (from the Greek kēkidion, anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or warts in animals. They can be caused by various parasites, from viruses, fungi and bacteria, to other plants, insects and mites. Plant galls can be such highly organized structures that their cause can be determined without the actual agent being identified. This applies particularly to insect and mite plant galls. The study of plant galls is known as cecidology.
Plant galls are caused by a wide range of organisms, including animals such as insects, mites, and nematodes; fungi; bacteria; viruses; and other plants.
Insect galls are the highly distinctive plant structures formed by some herbivorous insects as their own microhabitats. They are plant tissue which is controlled by the insect. Galls act as both the habitat and food source for the maker of the gall. The interior of a gall can contain edible nutritious starch and other tissues. Some galls act as "physiologic sinks", concentrating resources in the gall from the surrounding plant parts. Galls may also provide the insect with physical protection from predators.
Insect galls are usually induced by chemicals injected by the larvae of the insects into the plants and possibly mechanical damage. After the galls are formed, the larvae develop inside until fully grown, when they leave. To form galls, the insects must take advantage of the time when plant cell division occurs quickly: the growing season, usually spring in temperate climates, but which is extended in the tropics.
The meristems, where plant cell division occurs, are the usual sites of galls, though insect galls can be found on other parts of the plant, such as the leaves, stalks, branches, buds, roots, and even flowers and fruits. Gall-inducing insects are usually species-specific and sometimes tissue-specific on the plants they gall.
Gall-inducing insects include gall wasps, gall midges, gall flies, leaf-miner flies, aphids, scale insects, psyllids, thrips, gall moths, and weevils.
Many gall insects remain to be described. Estimates range up to more than 210,000 species, not counting parasitoids of gall-forming insects.
More than 1400 species of cynipid wasps cause galls. Some 1000 of these are in the tribe Cynipini, their hosts mostly being oak trees and other members of the Fagaceae (the beech tree family). These are often restricted taxonomically to a single host species or a group of related species.
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