{"id":720,"date":"2015-12-23T09:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T15:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=720"},"modified":"2015-12-23T12:54:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T18:54:51","slug":"oak-leaf-gall-midge-polystepha-pilulae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=720","title":{"rendered":"Oak leaf gall midge <em>(Polystepha pilulae)<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-721\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_pilulae_03.jpg\" alt=\"oak leaf gall midge (Polystepha pilulae)\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_pilulae_03.jpg 720w, https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_pilulae_03-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_pilulae_03-624x416.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Many insects form detachable galls on oak. All but two of these are cynipid wasps. The two exceptions are the oak gall midges <em>Polystepha pilulae<\/em> and <em>Polystepha globosa<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Oak leaf gall midge <em>(Polystepha pilulae)<\/em> is a long-legged, 1\u2009\u204416\u2033 to \u215b\u2033 long, mosquito-like fly (midge). Adults are impossible to identify by appearance in the field. However, the species can easily be identified by the gall it produces. Galls appear always on the upper surface of northern pin oak, northern red oak, and possibly black oak leaves. They are hard, 1\u2009\u204416\u2033 to 3\u2009\u204416\u2033 in diameter, and irregular in shape. They are green when they first appear in the spring, soon turning red or magenta. As they age they become brown and crusty. They can be easily detached from the leaf surface.<\/p>\n<p>Oak leaf gall midge <em>(Polystepha globosa)<\/em> forms similar spherical galls on the undersurface of the leaves of black oak and possibly other oaks in the red oak group.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/minnesotaseasons.com\/Insects\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_(pilulae).html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/minnesotaseasons.com\/Insects\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_(pilulae).html<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/oak_leaf_gall_midge_pilulae_03.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=720\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"button_count\"  size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many insects form detachable galls on oak. All but two of these are cynipid wasps. The two exceptions are the oak gall midges Polystepha pilulae and Polystepha globosa. Oak leaf gall midge (Polystepha pilulae) is a long-legged, 1\u2009\u204416\u2033 to \u215b\u2033 long, mosquito-like fly (midge). Adults are impossible to identify by appearance in the field. However, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[291,292],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":723,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}