Drama In The Oaks!

  Wandering around the Bayou and surrounding woods is something I do best!  I can wander til the cows come home and never feel bad about it.  Yesterday was a wandering day. Down near the marsh edge, there are many old oak trees.  These trees have been here and held strong for as long as I can remember and then some.  These old oaks are always a source of interest.   They hold secrets aplenty! Their branches sweep low to the ground which offers a hiding spot for all sorts of critters.  Yesterday's point of interest was not a critter that was easily seen, however, and I am not even sure if the critter was there at all!

  On one of the lower limbs, a tiny twig held a huge lumpy, bumpy thing.  I have seen these "growths" on the oak twigs many times and have always secretly wanted to cut one open to find my critter.  Inside, there is supposedly the larva of a wasp just waiting to burst forth in its full glory of wasphood. The gall wasp is also commonly called a gall fly.  It belongs in the family Cynipidae which is considered a superfamily because it has so many members!  There are lots and lots of these critters and they all induce the galls on trees to house their larvae.  It is pretty neat when you think about it.  While there is still some question as to how the wasp induces the tree to make the gall, the tiny critter has a nice wooden home to protect it while it grows. 

  There is one downside to this whole house thing, however.  The larva has one enemy that knows just how to get to it.  There is a different wasp that is parasitic to the gall fly.  The female has a long, hard tube-like ovipositor that can literally poke a hole in the gall.  It lays an egg which hatches and feeds upon the original occupant of the "house".  

  See?  I told you oak trees have some pretty neat secrets!  There are wasps that are called flies that can make trees do fantastic, magical things but they have enemies that can break into their houses to eat their young!  Drama in the oaks!