bobnieman's Favorites

Absolutely crazy! I noticed a large woolly gall on Quercus turbinella and decided to collect it, and right after I plucked the gall off of the tree I noticed a small insect on it that I immeadiately realized was a gall wasp! The wasp was mid-emergence from the gall and I had the insane luck of collecting the gall as this was happening. The first two photos are in the field, right next to the tree the gall was on. I put the gall and the wasp in a plastic bag I had with me and still have them both at home. The wasp crawled around the bag for a while and it seemed to take about 20 minutes for its wings to dry. A bit after collection I noticed a drop of liquid on it's wing as it was flexing it. I intend to preserve the wasp for ID and to hopefully help in future studies to get the species described.