Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Amphibolips quercusinanis - Larger Empty Oak Apple Wasp

6008177 Small wasp - Amphibolips quercusinanis 6008177 Small wasp - Amphibolips quercusinanis Gall Wasp Oak Apple - Amphibolips quercusinanis Spotted Oak Apple Gall Wasp? - Amphibolips quercusinanis  Cynipidae, Larger Empty Oak Apple Wasp - Amphibolips quercusinanis Bug related ? - Amphibolips quercusinanis Cynipidae - Gall Wasp? - Amphibolips quercusinanis Cynipid oak gall-like structures - Amphibolips quercusinanis
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon ("Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps)
Superfamily Cynipoidea
Family Cynipidae (Gall Wasps)
Tribe Cynipini (Oak Gall Wasps)
Genus Amphibolips
Species quercusinanis (Larger Empty Oak Apple Wasp)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Amphibolips inanis Osten Sacken, 1862
Explanation of Names
Quercusinanis is from Latin quercus, oak, and inanis, empty.
Food
Weld (1) lists only red oak (Quercus rubra) as a host; Felt (2) lists both scarlet (Q. coccinea) and red.
Life Cycle
Galls appear in May (2); adults emerge from galls in June. (1)
Remarks
Forms detachable galls on oak leaves. "Produced singly on under side of leaf, 18-32 mm in dia., light green, spotted. June." (1) "Globose, bright green with red spots, becoming yellowish-brown, slightly nippled, thin-shelled, glossy, the central larval cell supported by radiating fibers, diameter 1 to 1 1/2 inches." (2)
See Also
Atrusca quercuscentricola forms a similar but somewhat smaller (1/2 to 3/4 inch) hollow, spotted gall on leaves of post oak in the fall.
Internet References
Natural Resources Canada (includes adult image)
Works Cited
1.Cynipid Galls of the Eastern United States
Lewis H. Weld. 1959. Privately printed in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2.Plant Galls and Gall Makers
Ephraim Porter Felt. 1940. Comstock Publishing Company, Inc., Ithaca NY.