( Pontania californica )
PHOTO COMMENT
(Marlatt ,1896 )
LOCATION DETAILS
RECOGNITION
BIOLOGY
CREDITS
Eddie Dunbar
Insect Sciences Museum of California
References
| Willow Apple Gall Sawfly ( Pontania californica ) | |
| |
|
| |
PHOTO COMMENT | |
| IDENTIFICATION | |
| Identification: | Pontania californica (Marlatt ,1896 ) |
| Common Name: | Willow Apple Gall Sawfly |
| Life Stage: | (G) gall |
| PHYLOGENY | |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Superorder: | Holometabola |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Suborder: | Symphyta |
| Family: | Tenthredinidae |
| Subfamily: | Nematinae |
| Genus: | Pontania |
| Taxon Code: | HYM00903 |
LOCATION DETAILS | |
| Location Name | |
| Cerrito Creek, Albany | |
| County: | Alameda County |
| ECI Site#: | CA01020000 |
RECOGNITION | |
| Description | |
| This sawfly makes the only round red/green willow leaf gall in California with lenticels (wartlike scales, tubercles). The gall protrudes on both sides of the leaf. Female - Length 5mm.; rather robust; clypeus broadly, circularly emarginate, lobes medium; frontal crest very strongly developed, broken; lateral walls of ocellar basin subobsolete; antennae with joint 3 very little longer than 4; sheath broad, not tapering, broadly rounded at tip; claws deeply cleft; venation normal, except that upper discal does not exceed teh lower. Color in general resinous; antennae, large spot on vertex, including ocelli, occiput, mesonotum, except scutellum, metanotum and basal segment of abdomen, lower half of mesepimera, and sheath brownish black; veins dark brown; stigma somewhat lighter basally; wings very slightly infuscated. | |
| Body Length | |
| 5-6 mm. | |
| Colors | |
| Color1: Adult males are shiny black; females are dull reddish. | |
BIOLOGY | |
| Host | |
| Larva feeds on willow (Salix lasiolepis and Salix lemmonii) | |
| Importance | |
| Willow leaf gall sawflies apparently do not harm plants. Female sawflies insert their eggs in young willow leaves and inject a fluid that causes the formation of reddish, berrylike galls. One larva develops in each of these galls, which are globular or elongate and about 0.33 inch long. The larvae of several wasps, and at least one weevil and moth, feed on the sawfly larvae or on the gall tissue, causing the sawflies to die. A wasp, Eurytoma sp., appears especially important in controlling willow leaf gall sawfly populations in California. | |
CREDITS | |
|
Photographer Eddie Dunbar Insect Sciences Museum of California | |
References | |
| Species Pontania californica - Willow Apple Gall Sawfly. (https://bugguide.net/node/view/185043). Accessed July 27, 2018. . | |
| Managing Pests in Gardens: Trees and Shrubs: Invertebrates: Willow Leaf Gall Sawfly. UC IPM | |
| Howard, L. O. Revision of the Aphelininae of North America. USDA. | |
