What Gall! The Crazy Cribs of Parasitic Wasps | Deep Look
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- Plenty of animals build their homes in oak trees. But some very teeny, tricky wasps make the tree do all the work. And each miniature mansion the trees build for the wasps' larvae is weirder and more flamboyant than the next.
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“What nerve!” you might say. What… gall! And you’d be right. The wasps are called gall-inducers.
---+ What do oak galls look like?
If you’ve ever spent a Summer or Fall around oak trees - such as the stalwart Valley Oak - Quercus lobata, or the stately Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii - you may be familiar with the large, vaguely fruity-looking objects clinging to the branches and leaves. Commonly called oak apples, these growths are the last thing you’d want to put in your mouth. They are intensely bitter, loaded with tannin compounds - the same compounds that in modest amounts give red wine its pleasant dryness, and tea its refreshing earthy tang.
That said, the oak apple’s powerful astringency has been prized for millennia. Tanning leather, making ink or dye, and cleaning wounds have been but a few of the gall’s historical uses.
But on closer inspection of these oaks - and many other plants and trees such as willows, alders, manzanitas, or pines - you can find a rogue’s gallery of smaller galls. Carefully peeking under leaves, along the stems and branches, or around the flower buds and acorns will likely lead you to unexpected finds. Smooth ones. Spiky ones. Long skinny ones, flat ones, lumpy, boxy ones. From the size of a golf ball down to that of a poppy seed. These structures wear shades of yellow, green, brown, purple, pink and red - and sometimes all of the above. A single tree may be host to dozens of types of gall, each one caused by a specific organism. And their shapes range from the sublime to the downright creepy. One tree may be encrusted with them, like a Christmas tree laden with ornaments and tinsel; and the next tree over may be almost completely free of galls. Why? It’s a mystery.
---+ How do oak galls form?
Galls are generally formed when an insect, or its larvae, introduce chemicals into a specific location, to push the plant’s growth hormones into overdrive. This can result in a great profusion of normal cells, increased size of existing cells, or the alteration of entire plant structures into new, alien forms.
Lots of creatures cause them; midges, mites, aphids, flies, even bacteria and viruses. But the undisputed champs are a big family of little wasps called Cynipids- rarely exceeding the size of a mosquito, a quarter of an inch in length.
“These tiny wasps cannot sting,” says Dr. Kathy Schick, Assistant Specialist/Curatorial Assistant at the Essig Museum of Entomology at UC Berkeley. “Gall-inducers are fascinating in that they are very specialized to their organ of the host plant.”
---+ What are oak galls?
These wasp houses are not homes exactly, but more akin to nurseries. The galls serve as an ideal environment for wasp larvae, whether it is a single offspring, or dozens. The tree is tricked into generating outsize amounts of soft, pillowy tissue inside each gall, on which the larvae gladly gorge themselves as they grow.
Full article: blogs.kqed.org/...
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#deeplook
I would TOTALLY live in a giant banana for my whole childhood. Great work, Deep Look!
Thanks, May! That would be the life.
But I doubt you would be alone :/
but all that poop will stink...
May Thein yo
its free real estate
For years, I've noticed these little, rather unremarkable, tannish-colored balls of fuzz on the bottom of fallen leaves from the live oaks all over my area. They are extremely common, and especially under the live oak in front of my grandmother's house, almost every leaf on the ground has at least one. I've always assumed they were a natural part of the leaf or a fungus or something. After this video reminded me of them, I looked up what they were... and yes, it turns out they are woolly oak galls! I can't wait to tell my grandmother her oak tree has been a huge wasp nursery all these years! This is my new favorite educational channel!
Excellent! Once you know about them, you start seeing galls everywhere.
Deep Look you are my favorite Channel of education tooo!!!!
The tree that recently fell at my grandparents house you should drop one the size of crab apples or small ping-pong balls are used to collect them and when you squish them they look like they were bleeding they were so cool
+CelestialDragon stouffer omg i think that would be gross... but encountering one could be ammusing enough rather than squishing it though 😂... I may never know since I live at the other side of the world
The large tan circular oak galls are sometimes called “oak apples”, though they’re certainly not edible.
You'd think the oak would be harmed in someways but no, it's oak-ay.
Are you a dad?
This comment is underated
Commensalism is what this interaction is called. It's pretty cool.
oh hey dad
Oh god lol
I just started noticing galls on various tree species around on my college campus. I knew they were called galls, but I just assumed it was a type of tree cancer or tumor. Never have I been so happy as to be so wrong.
Once you know about them, you see them everywhere.
Deep Look That’s kinda foreboding...
No wonder my tree leaves looks like it has warts
Awesomeness Films Bol man!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😭😭😭😭😭😭
they could also be tick galls! some species of tick do the same, they look more like warts
What. What. What. How have I not heard of theses incredible insects before? This is real, right? I mean, it has to be real...but how could I not know about these beautiful natural structures? This is nuts!
I mean, those bouncing ones? Incredible. The natural world never ceases to amaze.
Yep - they are real. They are just so small you just don't notice them easily.
I just and you weren't kidding Deep Look.
Those things are as tiny as aphids.
Yes, they are even crazier within insect hosts.
*What Gall! The Crazy Cribs of Parasitic Wasps | Deep Look*
Plenty of animals build their homes in oak trees. But some very teeny, tricky wasps make the tree do all the work. “What nerve!” you might say. What… gall! And you’d be right. They’re called gall-inducers. And each miniature mansion the trees build for the wasps' larvae is weirder and more flamboyant than the next.
Article and more pictures at KQED Science: goo.gl/YWsNlO
Wasps are the villains of animal kingdom.
no, Humans to be exact
Not really, each animal has an important role.
@@amberstevens8874 and what kind of important role do the wasps have?
Says whom?
Scary AF
I love your videos but I have to correct you. A gallbladder doesn't produce bile. A gallbladder is used for storing the bile produced by a liver.
+roman Ah, yes. Thanks for finding that! And thank you for watching!
Ooooooooo goood catch
Well it does secretes bile juice and stores the left over bile juice which doesn't gets used.
Uh... Could have gone into a little detail about HOW the wasp alters the trees' (dna?) to do this. Cute story but more information would be better.
Thanks for the feedback! You can read a bit more here: ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/11/18/what-gall-the-crazy-cribs-of-parasitic-wasps/
So, does the wasp induce the oak tree to produce the structures? Or does the wasp provide an initial structure with the eggs which the tree then nourishes?
the tree also does it as response to the presence of an infection or injury.
lolaz wabby no
@@KQEDDeepLook I must say that that was a fascinating read. Thanks for the link.
I love how these videos are just as equally beautiful and artistic looking as they are fascinating and entertaining. The team behind the making of this series must all have beautiful minds and ideas with great appreciation for the wonders of nature.
I don't wanna climb trees anymore.
Parasitic wasps are, by far, my favorite group of wasps! So much variety and so many layers of parasitizing....
I actually did a group project on Gall Wasps in college. And one of our group members personally experienced the bitter flavor meant to ward off potential prey. He was like "this looks sorta like an apple, I wonder if it tastes anything like one."
oh dear god
Cool. I had no idea. Now I want an arboretum filled with different gall wasp species. I guess I'll add to the list, right underneath my dream aquarium filled with hermit crabs and tiny 3d printed glass shells.
1:03
*Croissant : Am i a joke to you?*
1:17
The forbidden pop rocks...
"I'm not mocking you at all."
"You got some friggin' gall.
Keep it up, kid. You'll stick the landing on a freefall."
That was fascinating!
good job narrating Amy😊👍 I'm 13 and I just found about this today. um binge watching all the episodes
I heard from Tom Wessels that some galls are actually recently thought to supply more energy to the tree through photosynthesis than the amount of energy the trees are sinking into the gall. It might not be simple parasitism.
This is a pretty awesome series, you guys deserve more recognition for sure
jimmy Howerton Jimmy, thank you, we appreciate the encouragement. We will be releasing 2 per month for the next year (with a few short breaks for production & holidays). Do you live in an area where you can see oak galls?
I live in an area with a ton of oak trees so I probably do; next time I go out I'll definitely have a look for them!
jimmy Howerton Great! Take pictures and we'll try to identify them.
Is this where I milk the gall bladder from planet Uranus?
Oak gall is a principal component in ink. One could say (with a bit of a stretch) that the human scholastic work for many many centuries also rests on these tiny parasites.
I love the quality of these videos, it looks and sounds good, keep them up! :)
+C Pramudya Thank you so much!
+Deep Look 4 more days till the next video right?
I love these videos, awesome footage, great editing and the narrator is very good too.
Wait, im an oak tree, and my classmates are wasps? I KNEW IT
The mighty oak stands tall and proud, as little wars of subterfuge carry on upon its leaves and branches.
Completely mind blown 🤯. A childhood memory has been unlocked 😅. There’s lots of oak trees in Louisiana and I would see the galls everywhere especially on the leaves but never knew what they were!!
Gall mites also make galls in tree leaves, and they spend the majority of their lives within these galls. If I remember correctly they only leave the galls to mate.
The only video I have seen with no dislikes.AWESOME!!!
You jinxed it!
MoondayBlue Awww
Aww she made wasp seem so cute lol!!!😍
It is fascinating that the galls are so different, instead of the oak healing over it. How does the genetic code of the parasite affect the oak cells?
I found one of these in my backyard, though it had already hatched, I picked it apart and looked at it, I found a lot of shed exoskeletons
Its a wonderful channel,,science backed...love it😍 love all its videos
So glad you are enjoying them!
FINALLY! I've been watching these things develop for months. I thought they were fungi! Thanks for clearing that up for me and feeding my nightmares. I'll be moving now.
If the tree isn't harmed, it's not really a parasitic relationship - more a commensal one
That wasp actually has a cute face!!
Wow, I always wondered what those things I found on leaves were. Very cool and informative
These wasps often control pests on their hosts keeping them healthy. Much more of a symbiotic relationship really
As a kid I would find these vibrating, jumping "rocks" in the park and I called them "jumping beans". I thought they were like the beans from Jack and the Beanstalk (I was 3-6 years old). Turns out they were galls!
I like how most of the galls fit with the name of the wasps
I think it's great that they don't damage the tree. That way, no one has to exterminate them. I remember buying a Mexican jumping bean when I was a little kid at a grocery store lol. Nature is pretty fascinating..
These galls range from looking like flowers, fuzzy discolored cotton balls, weird ceramic art shapes.. I feel the urge to pluck them off >.>
Literally had no clue of these things growing trees... very out of the blue video and informative! Love it! 👌🏽
Seems like a mutual relationship to me. Wasps are usually predators of insects that eat leaves.
The bsby wasps nursery is exotic looking. The babirs not so much.🌱🌸🐴
The first wasp featured had an oddly cute appearance. Maybe it's the wide eyes that has me so entranced.
We think they are cute too!
"Imagine you're an oak tree"
Wasp mama: Hey, can u build me a nest 4 my bbs?
Me: ofc, you waspie.
nice you made it wholesome xD
It's Good that DEEP LOOK had no advertisement
That is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Do you guys have a link to Seth Manuel, the music producer for these?
You bet. His name is Seth Samuel, www.sethgsamuel.com/ .
Even though they are mostly naturally chaotic, that first little wasp was kinda cute
After watching this I went outside to an oak tree to see if I’d find any of those galls and I was surprised to see how many there were!
This is so neat! The only parasitic wasps I knew about are the ones in tomato horn worms. We'd keep them as pets to see what kind of moth they'd turn into but they'd always have the wasps in/on them and die.
jumping oak gall wast is like popcorn bounces when cooked
Gall Wasp: I have a nice safe house here so other bugs can go bother someone else. Parasitoid Wasps: No, I don't think I will.
Addicting videos.
Thanks, Sally! How did you find us?
I found myself searching for time-lapse video of galls being formed and suddenly thought "how amazing would it be if Deep Look could capture some footage like that?" Then the very next video I try in my quest has a sidebar link right here. "Oh yeah, Deep Look has already done a piece on galls and of course, it's gorgeous." But y'know, if you ever felt like doing a followup.....timelapse plz?? :D
Okay but like this is the one time I've seen an ad on UA-cam for something I've never heard of and got so immediately intrigued I subscribed within a few minutes.
Thank you, Geoffrey!
Them wasps can communicate with trees. Now that's the misssing link
If the oak tree isn't harmed, then it's not parasitism; it's commensalism.
how interesting! I have seen them often, and never even thought of how to look them up. I love this channel!
Thanks, Alfredo!
The eyes of that mama wasp are pretty freakkin adorable.
"And each gall is weirder and more FLAMBOYANT-"
Uzui Tengen? Is that u
Hey, deep look. You make some pretty cool videos. I'm gonna be watching more from you.
Not enough depth but still wonderful footage. Like
Wasps are as fascinating as they are terrifying.
Dude I found like 200 of those jumping galls when I was like 8 o.o me and this girl were like 2 feet away from them and we were picking up handfuls.
Would've been funny if a larva fell out aat that moment
@@Elias-hm7weFor real though 💀
Absolutely astounding.
Makes you think of the Yggdrasil. And the gall as tiny worlds all in their own
I live in Texas, all in elementary I use to play with those with my friends! I wish I had known sooner! Nasty but interesting! 😱😱
I've actually seen some of these galls before and always wondered what they were. Thank you for the knowledge!
But it also means when they hatch there'll be armys of wasps outside you're house😱
It looks nice...even nicer with the tree unharmed
Gall wasps?! Time to put this in my wildlife diary
Oak lives
Wasp : free real estate literally lol
So many species of wasps and bees out there
RIP that one person who bite one of those things thinking it was a fruit
Imagine being able to grow your home in the environment instead of destroying it.
I was expecting the wasps to have an intro like MTV cribs pretending they didn't know they were gonna film their house lol
oak galls are a traditional source material for black ink production.
I was glad the tree was OK at the end.
That Oak tree is dope. He does not even know.
Those galls are source of Tannins, which are use to make dyes and also has other industrial uses.
So that’s what those were. The green spikes thinking on the pack tree next to my childhood home was filled with this spickey ball.
This is work of art
I was so so so excited when I saw this video thumbnail. I had been searching and I couldnt find anything i recently went hiking snd saw these they caught my mom's eye because of the color and nobody knew what they were but they had a very light floral scent to them when they were squished or cracked
Imagine your an oak tree, and a wasp comes and ejects it’s eggs into you
I’m not sure I want to imagine that
Medieval people use the mixture of gall "juice" and other material as ink. It's shown in Secret of Kells.
Another bug idea: "eupathorus gracilicornis" (spelling?). I used to have some in my terrarium back in France. Beautiful beetles. Thanks again for your show!
Cecidology - a fascinating topic. You seem to have rather more spectacular galls on oaks than we do in the UK.
Ngl, some of the hues are quite pretty
Everything is a-oak-kay. Because I'm strong as an o-a-k.
I’m late to the party but I hope you know that I LOvE your videos so much and I appreciate your hard work!
Thank you, Jay. :-)
they're so creative
" say you are an oak tree ,just sitting there minding your own business"
Is it weird that I have a crush on the Deep Look voice?
OMG I want those bincy galls
I kinda wanna step on them
The narrators voice is soothing...
Parasitoids are so stinking cute!! 😍
We agree!
I agree