''Feron pattersonae'', also known as the plate gall wasp, is a species of oak gall wasp in the genus ''

Feron Fafnir Falcon Falcona Falligar the Behemoth Falligar the Behemoth, also known simply as Falligar, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He makes a single appearance in ''Thor: God of Thunder ...

.'' Their hosts are among the

white oaks ''Quercus'' subgenus ''Quercus'' is one of the two subgenera into which the genus ''Quercus'' was divided in a 2017 classification (the other being subgenus ''Cerris''). It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be called ...

grouping of oaks, with

blue oak ''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the b ...

being common. Feron pattersonae spring gall

Like most oak gall wasps, the plate gall wasp has two alternating generations a year: a

parthenogenic Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which the embryo develops directly from an egg without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertiliz ...

all-female generation, and a bisexual generation. The all-female generation produces galls in summer that are flat and circular with scalloped edges. Attached to the underside of leaves, these galls are initially green, then yellow, and fade to brown. They are 7–9 mm in diameter and have a single larval chamber. The bisexual generation's galls were thought by scientist

Alfred Kinsey Alfred Charles Kinsey (; June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) was an American sexologist, biologist, and professor of entomology and zoology who, in 1947, founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Insti ...

in 1922 to belong to a new species, ''Andricus pedicellatus''. These galls consist of a pointed capsule at the end of a hair-like stem.

References

External links

''Andricus pattersonae'' on gallformers
Cynipidae Gall-inducing insects Oak galls Hymenoptera of North America Insects of the United States Insects described in 1911 Western North American coastal fauna {{Apocrita-stub