Bishop's Head Gumtree Gall - Apiomorpha pileata
Family Eriococcidae
This page contains pictures and information about Bishop's Head Gumtree Galls that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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- Female gall length 25mm, male gall length 10mm
- Female insects induce large gall on stem of gumtree which look like a bishop's head. The gall is ovoid to ellipsoidal with truncate apex. Gall wall is 2-4mm thick. Living gall is green in colour with smooth surface.
- Female
- Genus Apiomorpha is confined to Eucalyptus, on which it forms distinctive galls.
- The scale insects in this family Eriococcidae induce distinctive woody gall on plants. The insect lives inside the gall from 1st instars to adult. Female adult stays inside the gall while winged male leaves its gall and look for the females. The gall induced by female and male usually look very different.
- Male gall length 8mm
- Males' galls are much smaller than females'. They are either on stems, leaves or on gall of females. Live gall is brown in colour with longitudinally ridged. Those galls were found in Karawatha Forest.
- We also found this Bishop's Head Gumtree Gall in Anstead Forest. However, they were on different species of gumtree.
- We open one of the full size but green gall and found a mature female inside.
- Those dry and dark brown galls were empty.
- The host plant
- We checked around on the host plants and near by gumtrees but could not found any male galls.
- We found this green gall near by on another small gumtree in Anstead Forest. We believe it is the the young gall of the large gall and they are the same species.
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- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, Plate 14_3.
- 2. Insects of Australia - CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 461.
- 3. A Revision of the Gall-Forming Coccoid Genus Apiomorpha Rubsaamen (Homoptera : Eriococcidae : Apiomorphinae) - P.J. Gullan, Aust. J. Zool., Suppl. Ser., 1984, No. 97, 1-203.
- 4. Species Apiomorpha pileata (Schrader, 1863) - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
