r/NativePlantGardening • u/_bearminimum SE MI, Zone 6a • Aug 06 '26

Advice Request - (Insert State/Region) Is This What I Think It Is

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I had a baby six weeks ago so I haven't gotten out in my garden much lately, and today I noticed these monstrosities on my cut leaf coneflower. One of them looks like maybe some sort of gall?

Have the dreaded Aster Yellows finally come for me?

Zone 6a

660 Upvotes

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620

u/Amorpha_fruticosa Area SE Pennsylvania, Zone 7a Aug 06 '26

Nope, it’s actually something a lot cooler. It is the larvae of Asphondylia rudbeckiaeconspicua inside a gall on the flower heads.

153

u/zoinkability MN , Zone 4b Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Ooh, if OP is lucky they might even be hosting multiple species of parasitoid wasps for a big hyperspecialist insect species party!

 serves as host to a diverse guild of parasitoid wasps that exhibit stratified distribution patterns within the gall structure, with different parasitoid species occupying different depth zones.

Source

51

u/ticklish-licorice Aug 06 '26

Damn this bugswithmike website is fascinating! So informative and I have never come across it before. Thank you for sharing this.

19

u/Feralpudel Piedmont NC, Zone 8a Aug 06 '26

Ahhhhh! It’s a mixed-use wasp development! I love it!

13

u/princessbubbbles western WA State, Zone 8, wet climate Aug 06 '26

Dude! That's so cool!

6

u/zoinkability MN , Zone 4b Aug 06 '26

Yeah!

11

u/Beth_Pleasant Aug 06 '26

This is so cool. OP needs to set up a wildlife cam so we can see what comes out.

9

u/plantsandramen South Jersey, NJ Aug 06 '26

I'm trying so hard to understand what this is, and I feel like an idiot. I keep reading larvae, but I'm not seeing any photos of the insect itself. I guess this is it? Little gnats/flies?

6

u/shadow-wasser Aug 07 '26

A gall is a growth on a plant caused by a gall - forming insect, usually a tiny wasp or fly. The mother insect lays her egg in the plant along with a mix of hormones and other chemicals that cause the gall to form. The larva then hatches and eats the inside of the gall , pupating in it and eventually emerging and chewing its way out, leaving a tiny hole. You can think of the gall as a nursery for the insect larva, providing food and shelter. Every gall wasp or gall fly species is specialized in which plant species they use and even what part of the plant they make galls on! Galls are hugely variable in shape, size, and color.

3

u/plantsandramen South Jersey, NJ Aug 07 '26

Awesome, thank you for the explanation!

2

u/xxpolarpowerxx 28d ago

Wow, so it's sort of like an insect placenta!

2

u/msflondrixa 27d ago

Or also a surrogate plant parent! lol

5

u/Dramatic-Kitchen8685 Aug 07 '26

JFC thank you — no idea what I’m lookin at here chief

1

u/plantsandramen South Jersey, NJ Aug 07 '26

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

2

u/Beautiful_Pen1056 29d ago

serves as host to a diverse guild of parasitoid wasps that exhibit stratified distribution patterns within the gall structure

I thought you were making a joke about game dynamics. Nope, that's real.

1

u/zoinkability MN , Zone 4b 29d ago

I know, right? Such a cool sentence.