California Gall Wasp

Andricus quercuscalifornicus

California Gall Wasp (Andricus quercuscalifornicus)
Image: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA, wikipedia

Andricus quercuscalifornicus, or the California gall wasp, is a small wasp species that induces oak apple galls on white oaks, primarily the valley oak but also other species such as Quercus berberidifolia, and Quercus garryana in Oregon. The California gall wasp is considered an ecosystem engineer, capable of manipulating the growth of galls for their own development. It is found from Washington, Oregon, and California to northern regions of Mexico. Often multiple wasps in different life stages occupy the same gall. The induced galls help establish complex insect communities, promoting the diversification in niche differentiation. Furthermore, the adaptive value of these galls could be attributed their ecological benefits such as nutrition, provision of microenvironment, and enemy avoidance. Source

Where is the California Gall Wasp now?

In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 58 times across 4 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the California Gall Wasp on the live map

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How the California Gall Wasp moves through the year

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in North America ranged from 33°N in April to 48°N in September, about 1,600 km apart.

Related species

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.