Knopper gall wasp
The knopper gall wasp is a tiny wasp that turns acorns into strange shapes. Its eggs make an oak acorn grow into a lumpy, ridged blob called a knopper gall. The baby wasp lives safely inside it, like in a little house.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It needs two different kinds of oak trees to complete its life: the English oak and the Turkey oak.
In spring, one generation grows in tiny cone shaped galls on the Turkey oak's flowers.
Some mothers lay eggs without any father, and the babies still hatch.
A knopper gall is about 2 centimetres big. It starts green and sticky and turns brown and woody.
It probably crossed the sea to Britain by flying high up on the wind.
Most asked questions about Knopper gall wasp
?What is a knopper gall?
A lumpy growth on an oak acorn, made when a knopper gall wasp lays its eggs there.
?Do knopper galls harm oak trees?
They can stop some acorns from growing, but the oaks are not seriously harmed.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andricus quercuscalicis
- Named by
- Burgsdorf, 1783
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Cynipidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Cynipidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Andricus quercuscalicis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Saharadesertfox. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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