These are galls caused by the jewelweed gall midge - Schizomyia impatientis.
Gall of the Jewelweed Gall Midge - Schizomyia impatientis |
The midge larvae gall the flower buds of jewelweed.
The photo didn't reproduce the orange color of the midge larva.
Rather a snug place to be... much safer than hanging around on the jewelweed's seedpod launch pads, eh?
Just stumbled across your post - this is great! I have a similar post, including a link to a video showing a live larvae crawling around after I did some home surgery on a gall. You can see it here - http://tinyurl.com/67wdgmb (You'll have to wade past other stuff - it's at the end.)
ReplyDeleteI just found one, too... in Iowa:
ReplyDeletehttp://bugguide.net/node/view/577857
Are they harmful to any great degree?
ReplyDelete