The author of the text and photos is MSc. Leszek Kośna
Although we know the plant on which we noticed this strange creature well, the find differs substantially from the characteristics of a given species.The authors of these puzzles, as it turns out, may be various factors.Viruses, bacteria, fungi and also animal organisms have the ability to distort plants. But it is the skills of the latter that constitute the essence of today's puzzling-sounding topic.
Fruit? Cone? Or maybe … gala?
Many of the most common and very characteristic outgrowths are the result of the activity of representatives of various orders of insects and arachnids.The galls created with their participation, also called galls, have various shapes and structures. They are single or multi-chambered, round, flat, polyhedral, irregular, with appendages, naked or hairy, and variously colored.Among all this variety, many of them well imitate real plant organs, but this is only a superficial resemblance.
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(photo: Leszek Kośna) |
So what is gala really?
For a plant, it is usually only a source of additional energy expenditure, a damage that limits the assimilation apparatus or impairs its mechanical strength, and destroys a flower or fruit. The situation is different for the culprit. The animal organism evidently benefits from the outgrowths that the plant created from its tissues for it.
Gallic dwellers
Galls are formed from plant tissue as its reaction to local stimuli, which are intruder's secretions. The stimulus for the formation of outgrowths may be the secretion of the salivary glands, penetrating into the tissues during the pest's ingestion of food (a characteristic of aphids).Another cause of galls is the introduction of stimulants during egg-laying.Around the developing larvae or larvae, if several eggs have been laid in one site, galls are formed which serve as a food source for the larvae because they are rich into sugars and nitrogen compounds.
The thick walls of the gall also have a protective function for the larvae developing inside. Tissue overgrowth can affect different parts of the plant: flower buds, young fruits, roots, and (which is most common) leaves.The gall-forming insects are mainly numerous representatives of aphids, wasps, flies and beetles. The most common among arachnids are spurs caused by microscopic spells.
Gauls often have fancy shapes and beautiful colors. They are also so characteristic that they allow, in most cases, to identify the species of the organism that caused their production. It is also possible thanks to the constant connections of specific species with the host - the plant.
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(photo: Leszek Kośna) |
What and how will it come out?
In nature, however, the dependency system is often very complicated. There are many situations when the safe haven of sprouts becomes a real trap.The plant, forming gall around the pest, isolates it and limits its forage to a permanent place. Together with the plant fragment, the larva inside dies, and it cannot simply move to an adjacent leaf or shoot.
Another threat is. Many parasitic wasps can lay their eggs inside the gall where its "rightful owner" feeds. Then the predatory larva will destroy it and in the future an adult individual of the attacker will emerge from the outgrowth.
Galls age and mature, and with them their inhabitants. There is a time when, as mature, they must leave the refuge in order for the species to mate and spread.If everything goes well and the development inside is complete, an escape route is needed.Some galleries open, giving the possibility for already fully developed tenants to leave their current place of life. From others, the inhabitants get out of the hole they have bitten into the tissue.
