Caryomyia persicoides (Hickory Midge Galls )

Caryomyia persicoides

Gagne Description ²

Common, found on Eucarya hickories; single or clustered, on veins of lower leaf surface; 5.1-9.0 mm in height, spheroidal or conical, base flat against leaf surface, clasping leaf vein, edge around base acute and lobed to obtusely rounded, tissue on apical third eventually collapsing somewhat and becoming furrowed when mature; covered with short, dense, velvety, green, yellow, tan, or red hair obscuring surface; connection to leaf circular and shallowly concave or flush with leaf; larval chamber located basally, ovoid, lined with yellowish pellicle different in texture from surrounding soft, spongy, green to purple, viscous tissue that partially collapses with age; a bundle of fibers present between apex of larval chamber and gall apex. Galls may be gum-drop shaped to nearly spherical. The uniform covering of dense, short hair is only slightly longer in galls of C. spherica, but the latter galls are always spherical, hard and woody, and the larval chamber is located at the very center of the gall

Gagne Biology Note ²

Galls of this species seem to be more commonly found in late summer. In central Maryland I occasionally found small galls with first instars beginning in mid-June but the galls seemed more numerous beginning in early August, when I found galls with larvae in first or second instars. Third instars were apparent in late August and September. Pupae break through the side of the gall. I once noticed a sciarid pupal exuviae sticking out of a hole near the gall's apex; possibly some other organism made the hole

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iNat Map

Carya	floridana, glabra, laciniosa, myristiciformis, ovata, pallida, texana, tomentosa
Texture	hairy
Alignment	erect
Detachable	yes
Location	leaf midrib, leaf veins (including midrib), lower leaf
Walls	thick

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