What Makes a Jumping Gal Tick?

If you've ever wondered what makes a Jumping Gal tick, then you've come to the right place. This tiny parasitic wasp lives inside of its galls, which roll and wiggle with the movements of its larva. Its black adult parasite also inhabits these galls. We talked with Deana about her unique experience, and she answered our questions about this parasite and the life cycle of Jumping Galls.

The larva of a jumping gall lives in a protective gall, which eventually breaks free of the leaf. The gall's larvae, which is usually parasitized by several species of wasps, overwinters inside its protective gall until spring. The adults emerge from their galls during the spring, about 20 days later. The adult wasps are parthenogenetic - they are capable of laying viable eggs without fertilization.

Female gall wasps deposit their fertilized eggs into the leaves of oak trees, where they develop into the spherical jumping galls we see in the summer. The larvae inside these galls will eventually fly away and live on the ground. While this bisexual generation of gall wasps was once divided into two separate species, scientists now recognize that they are alternating generations of the same species. In California, the females emerge in mid-April, and the larvae start to form three to four weeks after oviposition.