Gall wasps

About 1,400 species of the large hymenoptera family. The vast majority of them are predatory parasitoids (live on host animals) and are thus beneficial organisms in viticulture, the rest are plant tissues and thus vine enemies. The winged insects, most of which are 1 to 3 and in some species up to 8 millimetres in size, do not have a wasp waist and are coloured black, brown or yellow. The deposited eggs and the larvae hatched from them produce the eponymous bile on leaves, buds, stems, flowers and roots, depending on the insect species. The individual species are specialized on certain host plants. The leaves of oak trees are by far the most commonly infested, as there are thousands of different oak gall wasps alone (picture right). On the vine they occur only in relatively small numbers. See also wasps.

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Gall wasps

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