Tim Frey

Yay! Exciting! I didn’t really see anything that matched, gall-wise in the lit, but I am never confident about such things. I will see if I can get the shot.

I’m a little late on this but my favorite gall week find of Gall Week 2025; these tiny Neuroterus (presumably) flower galls on Q stellata. Madison County, OH. Adults reared only a few days later.

Welcome to OSU! If you ever find yourself on the Wooster campus, hit me up and we can do some gall hunting! (Also, if you are looking for food recommendations in CBUS, I have a ton of those as well).

a shiny metallic green sweat bee on white yarrow flowers

a chonky, pollen hauling in flight digger bee hovering in front of a pink red flowering currant flower

a fuzzy bee covered in pollen on top of the cone part of a cone flower

a hovering mason bee with a pollen hat and booties in front of a yellow flower

I'm painfully tired of honey bees still getting the most attention when they're not native to North America. They're basically livestock and outcompete our native bees. We do NOT need more urban hives.

So please, let's some some of our glorious wild bees for a change!

#Invertebrates

A single scarlet elf cup grows on a stick lying in a bed of moss. The spring sunlight illuminates its fleshy structure. All photos by me

Here is a nice mushroom

Front on view of a tiny black wasp with red eyes drinking from a droplet on the edge of a green leaf. The little guy has tiny white hairs appressed over the face, and fancy serrated antennae.

Side on view of a small black wasp with red eyes drinking from a droplet on the edge of a leaf.

A little Eurytoma solenozospheriae drinking from the edge of a blueberry leaf. This was reared from a gall of Hemadas nubilipennis.

More exciting news; the first fresh galls have arrived here in NE Ohio. Neuroterus vesicula on Q alba. These usually emerge before the leaves. This is my current “early tree”, and this is a couple of weeks later than last year.

I have several adults and would be happy to send them your way. I also have adults (that look superficially similar) from a similar gall collected on Q nigra collected in Alabama on the same trip. DM with your address and I will send them. I have them in ethanol at the moment.

The gall (on Myrtle oak flowers) and the adult gall wasp. Collected 3/24/25, Naval Live Oaks, Santa Rosa County FL. Hatched 3/31/25.

Left: Virgin Gnathostoma - "eggs won't even embryonate without touching water", "has to infect different host animal throughout life0cycle", "first host it infects is a tiny zooplankton crustacean", "has to infect at least two different host animal before it's ready to infect the final host", "ends up getting lost if it gets eaten by an animal different from the usual definitive host". Right: Chad Trichinella - "use the same host animal as both the definitive AND the intermediate host", "act as an intracellular parasite even though it is a multicellular animal", "can continue life cyycle in any carnivorous or omnivorous mammal", "reprogram skeletal muscle cells into nurse cells for its own purpose", "redirect blood vessel growth to nurse cell to turn it into a home and a sanctuary".

I made this NemaMeme to explain parasitic nematode life cycles.
#Invertebrate #Parasitology 🧪

P. britaniae

P. britaniae gall

Saphonecrus barbotini

Ceroptres cerri

NEW publication! Gall wasps associated with buds of Holm oak Quercus ilex in Britain: Plagiotrochus britaniae new to Britain (Scotland, England & Wales), Saphonecrus barbotini new to Britain and Ceroptres cerri new host record. FREE download here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

#WaspWednesday - The mealy oak gall wasp, Disholcaspis cinerosa

A black turtleneck with a red centipede embroidered around the neck part.

Tried visible mending for the first time last year with this turtleneck. Really like the results.

[ #handmade #insects #embroidery ]

Ormyrus bellbowl, a newly named species of parasitic wasp

Ormyrus myrae, a newly described species of parasitic wasp

#NewSpecies alert! We just published a paper in Zootaxa describing two gorgeous species of #Ormyrus parasitoid wasps associated with herb #gall #wasps! Ormyrus bellbowl is named after the Bell Bowl #Prairie in opposition to its abhorrent partial destruction in 2023. #PreserveOurPrairies

That’s so cool! I will be in the FL panhandle in a couple of weeks hoping to collect some more “S dentatum” and S simpsonii

We are hiring a seasonal research intern to work in our Bur Oak ACE experiment at The Morton Arboretum. Our lab is a fun group, the experiment fascinating. Come join us!

Application:

careers.hireology.com/themortonarb...

... information:

www.wbez.org/race-class-c...

grist.org/science/to-u...

Oak Origins On February 15, 2025, The Morton Arboretum hosted a lecture in honor of the release of Dr. Andrew Hipp's book Oak Origins: From Acorns to Species and the…

The most recent lecture I gave on Oak Origins at The Morton Arboretum was really nicely recorded and is available for free online. This is the fullest and cleanest version of the lecture I've given to date, with some new info.

I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share.

vimeo.com/1057955943

This is a fantastic thread.

Happy Valentine’s Day

It’s #Darwin Day. He was interested in the #galls #insects induce on #plants. He mused that gall development is caused by injected insect chemicals altering the plant’s own signals and that this involves fruit development traits, resulting in galls that resemble fruits. Gall Left, Fruit Right 🌿🧪

The evolution of signaling and monitoring in plant–fungal networks | PNAS Experiments have shown that when one plant is attacked by a pathogen or herbivore, this can lead to other plants connected to the same mycorrhizal ...

"We thought plants that are being munched on send warning signals to others, allowing them to boost defences. Turns out, plants are actually selfish jerks and their neighbours resort to chemical eavesdropping": a new @biology.ox.ac.uk paper by @stuwest.bsky.social
🧪🌱
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Dynamics of entomopathogenic nematode foraging and infectivity in microgravity - npj Microgravity npj Microgravity - Dynamics of entomopathogenic nematode foraging and infectivity in microgravity

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Sending beneficial nematodes to the International Space Station "The first biocontrol experiment in space".

Small green sawfly larvae chews large squiggly hole in green leaf.

Little bug. Big munch.

Our new @pnas.org paper shows a previously unrecognized mechanism by which climate warming reduces beech growth: more frequent seed production depletes tree resources, causing a 28% decline in radial growth.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Funded by @ncngovpl.bsky.social

Gotta be this massive Quercus muehlenbergii on my grandfathers farm.

A two pannel photo showing the development of several Cotton-gall Midge, Rhopalomyia utahensis, galls on Rubber Rabbitbrush, Ericameria nauseosa over 20 days. Left photo depicts small galls less than 5mm in size. Right photo shows the same galls, 20 days later, now 10mm in size. Both photos show a ruler, in cm, placed behind the galls for scale.

I walked the Cave Spring Trail every weekend for over a year when I lived in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. During that time, I had the privilege of documenting the development of many #galls. Here's one of my favorites. Details in alt text. #nationalpark #entomology #utah

Eight tiny green larvae with black heads chew holes in a green leaf against a blue sky.

Oh to be a bebe sawfly munching holes in a leaf.

Two pale-green, purple-spotted, fig-shaped galls attached to a small tree branch near some developing leaves.

Transversal cut through a pale green gall in which dozens of white, radiating plant fibers connect a central mass with the inner surface.

Larger empty apple oak gall (Amphibolips quercusinanis). The wasp larva resides in a protective chamber at the center, grazing on soft plant tissue fed by the radiating fibers. #wasp #insect #hymenoptera #entomology #gall #galls #oak #cynipidae

Scarce Silver-lines, scientific name Bena bicolorana.

The Scarce Silver-lines moth. Trapped in Middlewich in Cheshire in July a few years ago. Flies between June and August over most of England and Wales. #moths

Sunset reflected.
The Morton Arboretum.