Hi there,

I agree - it is Andricus curvator and it looks like more than three although small galls.

Some people might remember that I send a message 12 month ago (or so) asking everyone whether they find galls like A. curvator, Neuroterus quercusbaccarum or N. numismalis in their area, because the whole guild of spring leave mining cynipid gallers appeared to have dropped out of the communities at two of the sites I am working at.

Asking people on the continent as well it appeared that the decrease in abundance in these species was pretty much a Europe wide affair. Thus I would like to ask everyone again this year to have a look out for the same set of species. At the two sites in southern England where we take formal density measures N. quercusbaccarum is still absent (from 1080 shoots inspected). N. numismalis is roughly where it was last year and A. curvator shows a small increase. Still, there are so few galls on the leaves this spring that I imagine parasitoid pressure could be quite high (which could explain why most but not all of the galls on Richards picture look small and under-developed).

Where would the parasitoid wasps come from? One possible source is Biorhiza pallida - as the leaf-galls disappeared last year, B. pallida had a great year, but has dropped back to more "normal" levels this spring.

Again I would be very interested to get a feeling at what geographical scale these changes might occur and would be interested in your observations. If you have formal density measures at any scale that would be great, but qualitative observations would also be helpful, since the density changes we observed last years was in orders of magnitude and not one or two galls.

Please look out for your oak galls... best wishes

Karsten

----------------------------------------------------------
Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted.

==================================
Dr. Karsten Schonrogge
Associate Editor: Insect Conservation & Diversity
(http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1752-458X&site=1)
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>>> jaapiella@yahoo.co.uk 05/28/07 11:51 pm >>>
Hello Richard

Took a quick look, pics are a bit blurry or I am after a swift half, looks like a possible Andricus curvator.

S

rrogers12345 <qiop@hotmail.co.uk> wrote: Hello all,

I have just joined this group as I found a gall today that I cannot
id for certain. I have taken pictures of other galls but have been
able to work out their id until this one.

I have put a photo in a photo album called Richard, hopefully this
link will work:

http://uk.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/british_galls/photos/view/f9aa?
b=1

There are actually three galls there though it not easy to make them
out.

The only id I can come up with is the Ramshorn Gall (Andricus aries)
but they would have to be early ones befoe the horns have developed.

Any comment please.

Thanks

Richard





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