Acorn Plum Gall Wasp (Amphibolips quercusjuglans)

Acorn Plum Wasp Gall - Amphibolips quercusjuglans This gall had dense, red flesh. It had a small cell in the center, which appeared to have several larvae in it. I always thought these galls had a single larva in the center cell, so am not sure why there appears to be many in this one, unless it was parasitized? The gall did have a crack in it, which is how I was able to pry it open. The outside of the gall was brown and dark red.

Habitat: Spotted on the ground (detached) in a mixed forest, but in an area dominated by oak.
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/65891/acorn_plum_wasp_gall_-_amphibolips_quercusjuglans.html Acorn Plum Gall Wasp,Amphibolips quercusjuglans,Geotagged,Summer,United States,acorn plum gall,acorn plum wasp gall,amphibolips,gall

Appearance

Forms large, globose, thick-walled, hard, mottled, brownish or reddish galls on the side of the acorn cup, easily detached and dropping to the ground in the fall, always on red oaks. Pink when fresh, becoming yellow and then blood-red, diameter 1/2 to 1 inch, on black, red, scarlet, Spanish and scrub oaks. August and September, shrivels, and becomes very hard.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/507502

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Division	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Cynipidae
Genus	Amphibolips
Species	Amphibolips quercusjuglans

Photographed in
United States of America