INSECT GALLS, AND FEELING THE PAIN

INSECT GALL ON RUGOSA ROSE HIP

RUGOSA ROSE HIPS

GALL AMONG UNINFECTED HIPS

Wednesday,  8:30 AM.  59 degrees F, wind SW, light with moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly clear, with a few high wispy white clouds. The humidity is down to 71%, and the barometer is trending up at 29.98".  The Farmers' Almanac predicts several days of sunny weather.
   Insects which feed inside plant tissue often produce galls which are very characteristic of the species of insect and the species of plant.  The galls are abnormal tissue which results from the effects of the insect feeding on and living in the plant tissue.  Pictured is a gall on the fruit, or hips, of a rugosa rose bush.  The gall is plant tissue, not insect tissue.  This gall looks like a fuzzy ball of fur and is quite interesting.
   It is caused by a tiny wasp, Diplolepis rosae, which deposits its eggs in the deveoping rose hip.  The larvae feed within the plant tissue and cause the mutations which form the gall.  This gall has several names; rose bedeguar gall, Robin's pincushion gall, and moss gall.  Wikipedia also has a good discussion and photos of this gall.  The galls cause little actual damage to the rose bush, and are usually most prevalent when the plant is under stress.
  Insect galls of various kinds can appear on leaves, stem, fruit and branches.  Like politicians, they pop up in odd places.  Unlike politicians, they usually cause little harm.
 " Do you feel the pain?"  The President is asking:  asking families of fallen soldiers who's death benefits are cancelled;  asking tourists and workers stranded in national parks; asking veterans and tourists seeking admittance to national monuments that do not need to be closed to the public; he is inflicting pain at every opportunity so that he can demonize whoever opposes him, in whatever way he can.  Will it work?  Maybe, maybe not, but it reveals the true underlying nature of this President and his administration.  They are little more than Chicago thugs.