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Pyemotes herfsi, also known as the oak leaf gall mite or itch mite, is an ectoparasitic mite identified in Europe and subsequently found in India, Asia, and the United States. The mite parasitizes a variety of insect hosts and bites humans, causing red, itchy, and painful wheals (welts). The mites are barely visible, measuring about 0.2–0.8 ...
Any larvae in the gall are paralyzed with the mite's venom, which is strong enough to paralyze prey 166,000 times the mite's size, PennState Extension says. ... How to treat oak leaf itch mite bites.
Although it usually feeds on oak leaf gall midge (Polystepha pilulae) larvae and other insects, the oak leaf gall mite ("itch mite") (Pyemotes herfsi) becomes an ectoparasite of periodical cicada eggs when these are available. After cicadas deposit their eggs in the branches of trees, feeding mites reproduce and their numbers increase. [60]
Aceria mackiei, previously Eriophyes mackiei, the live oak erineum mite, is an abundant eriophyoid mite that produces leaf-blister galls on coast live oak, interior live oak, huckleberry oak, and canyon live oak. [1] This mite's ability to induce galls in oaks of both the black oak group and the intermediate oak group is unique. [1]
Jumping oak galls are caused by a very tiny, native, stingless wasp (Neuroterus sp.) which lays eggs in leaf buds. As the leaf develops, pinhead-sized galls, also referred to as abnormal plant ...
Leaf galls appear like tiny clubs; however, flower galls are globose. Exobasidium often induces spectacular galls on its hosts. The fungus Ustilago esculenta associated with Zizania latifolia , a wild rice, produces an edible gall highly valued as a food source in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces of China.
Eriophyidae is a family of more than 200 genera of mites, which live as plant parasites, commonly causing galls or other damage to the plant tissues and hence known as gall mites. About 3,600 species have been described, but this is probably less than 10% of the actual number existing in this poorly researched family.
Edmond Zaborski, a research scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, then discovered that the skin conditions had resulted from oak leaf gall mite ("itch mite") (Pyemotes herfsi) bites. Zaborski further found that the mites were ectoparasites whose numbers had increased while feeding on the brood's eggs. [9]