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Photo#228167
Schizomyia impatiens? - Schizomyia impatientis

Schizomyia impatiens? - Schizomyia impatientis
Halifax, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, Canada
September 23, 2008
Size: A couple of mm
I'm in a university class doing a project on galls that grow on the flowers of impatiens plants. This type of grub is what we find in the galls. We believe that it is a jewelweed gall midge (Schizomyia impatiens), but we cannot find any supporting evidence for this in the form of pictures or research done on the animal, and we don't know what it looks like as an adult. We would really appreciate any information that anyone could provide or even a suggestion to where else we could possibly find such info.

Schizomyia impatientis
If the galls look like this

your ID is correct... although there's a possibility of finding another type of midge larva in these galls. According to Gagne: "The active, red larvae leave the galls in late summer or early fall and drop to the ground to overwinter. Larvae of Youngomyia podophyllae (Felt) are occasionally found in these galls . . . Whether Y. podophyllae is a predator or a benign inquiline is unknown." That's all the info that Gagne gives on these galls, but note that the species is impatientis, not impatiens--that may make your information search more successful. You can see some examples of adult gall midges here, but BugGuide doesn't have any that are known to be this species.

 
Thanks!
Thanks!

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