Cynipidae Andricus sp.?

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

I rescued this from my pond on 1st March. It was approx. 7-8mm long, bigger than the Andricus species I am coming across.

Does anyone recognise it?

Janet

[Torymus]

Brilliant pictures - could I download some of these for my talks on gall wasps please? The species is most likely to be Andricus quercuscalicis. It is a very large species. This species emerges from the well known and often very abundant "knopper galls" found on English oak acorns (Quercus robur) and emerge now. There are other less common options but it would be necessary to work through the cynipid key to check for these and none of these species are easy to identify without use of a microscope. However your pictures match well with specimens of A. quercuscalicis that I have. The picture shows an agamic female ie she can lay fertile eggs without fertilisation by a male. The eggs are laid on catkin buds of Turkey Oaks Quercus cerris. They form very small galls on the catkin and mature in May. The males and females that emerge then are very different from the female in your photo and only a fraction of the size (2-3mm).

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Torymus

Brilliant pictures - could I download some of these for my talks on gall wasps please? The species is most likely to be Andricus quercuscalicis. It is a very large species. This species emerges from the well known and often very abundant "knopper galls" found on English oak acorns (Quercus robur) and emerge now. There are other less common options but it would be necessary to work through the cynipid key to check for these and none of these species are easy to identify without use of a microscope. However your pictures match well with specimens of A. quercuscalicis that I have. The picture shows an agamic female ie she can lay fertile eggs without fertilisation by a male. The eggs are laid on catkin buds of Turkey Oaks Quercus cerris. They form very small galls on the catkin and mature in May. The males and females that emerge then are very different from the female in your photo and only a fraction of the size (2-3mm).

Yes you are welcome to use them, and thanks for the compliment! I had to take those of my finger with one hand, I'm used to that.

I put it on a plant so it could dry itself off, it managed to hop to another leaf.

I mentioned I took the pics on 1st March, that was on Monday.

Thanks for the ID! That's a huge size difference!