A tiny spider has made her home on this cypress gall.
We had never heard of a Cypress Twig Gall Midge until last week. When we stopped for Quinn to take his photo of the sunning turtle, I took a closer look at the Bald Cypress growing at the edge of the pond at the St. Augustine Road Fish Management area. There were quite a few gray growths all over the tree. They weren’t unsightly, in fact I thought the way the leaves poked through the growths was quite interesting. Once home, a quick search led us to this University of Florida entomology page where we learned about the Cypress Twig Gall Midge Taxodiomyia cupressiananassa. Gall – yes – that was the word we couldn’t come up with during our walk.The midge lays its eggs on the tree in the spring and the tree produces the gall in response to the hatched larvae, which make the gall their home until they pupate and emerge as adults the following spring. I noticed a tiny orange spider on one of the galls and have been back to check on it for the past week. It has spun itself quite a web around the one gall – will have to keep an eye on it.
The galls from the Cypress Twig Gall Midge can be so numerous that they weigh the branches down.
