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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera) » Gnats, Gall Midges, and March Flies (Bibionomorpha) » Fungus Gnats and Gall Midges (Sciaroidea) » Gall Midges and Wood Midges (Cecidomyiidae) » Gall Midges (Cecidomyiinae)
Photo#1800312
Cecidomyiidae, Fleabane flower galls
Copyright © 2020 MJ Hatfield

Cecidomyiidae, Fleabane flower galls
Craggy Rocks, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
August 30, 2019
August 19, 2019: collected deformed flowers on Fleabane, Erigeron sp.
August 31, 2019: first wasp, picked apart flowers to 14 red elongate galls and 1 dead gall fly
September 1 - 9, 2019: more wasps


I tried to call these galls Rhopalomyia based on the Erigeron gall key in Dr. Gagné's Red Book, but the 2 options (apical bud gall and polythalmous galls) may not fit.

Images of this individual: tag all
Cecidomyiidae, Fleabane flower galls Cecidomyiidae, Fleabane flower galls Cecidomyiidae Cecidomyiidae
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Contributed by MJ Hatfield on 15 April, 2020 - 10:01am

ID from Gagné
Ray examined some adults I reared from galls of this type (see ), and in autumn of 2021 he wrote:
"Rhopalomyia sp., presumably new."
Yours is the first record of this gall that I'm aware of -- nice discovery!
… John van der Linden, 21 February, 2022 - 11:27pm login or register to post comments

 
Thanks so much.
I finally shipped these galls (and the fly) to Dr. Gagné last May so they have a home.
… MJ Hatfield, 22 February, 2022 - 7:52am login or register to post comments

Fleabane fuzzy-bunch galls
I think that what you're showing here is the same thing as this:



Fuzzy, bunched-up, with little individual reddish capsules hidden inside the fuzz. In my recent walkabouts I stumbled across these galls once on June 10



and again yesterday; checked to see if they were already on BugGuide, and lo, there are your posts from 2019. The gall I collected yesterday has a pupa in one of the capsules...so, seems like a good time to collect this to try for adults. I could be wrong, but I would guess that the dead adult gall midge you found when you picked apart your gall was an inquiline, as it is considerably smaller than the pupa in the capsule I examined today.



If you can find some more of these, between the two of us we'll have a very good chance of getting some adults.
… John van der Linden, 19 June, 2021 - 2:15am login or register to post comments

 
THANK YOU.
Do you think the reddish pupae in my photo #2 are the same as yours?
… MJ Hatfield, 19 June, 2021 - 9:28am login or register to post comments

 
I see reddish capsules in photo #2
but can't tell if there are any pupae inside of them. From your photo #4 it looks like the capsules are empty, suggesting that the adults already emerged. I do think we are talking about the same kind of gall here, just collected at different times of year. Based on my finding pupae in the galls that are out there right now, and your finding (apparently) empty capsules in mid-August, I'm guessing the adults of the gallmaker emerge in late June.
… John van der Linden, 19 June, 2021 - 1:13pm login or register to post comments

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