General Description

By Nora Bryan

You will probably never notice the minute, slender, fragile Pine-cone Willow Gall Midge, which is found everywhere willows are found. If you’ve ever been puzzled at what appear to be pinecones growing on willow shrubs, then you’ve seen the interesting galls that these tiny flies make. These galls, which are about the size of a white spruce cone, really do like pinecones, except that they are pale green and a bit fuzzy.

It is the larval stage, or maggot that lives within the characteristic gall. The larva is a minute featureless maggot. If you ever were to see one under a microscope you would see it’s characteristic T-shaped ‘breastplate’.

Galls are a kind of arrangement between the host plant and the gall-making insect, and they can have very bizarre forms. Although galls rarely do significant harm to the host plant, they probably don’t gain any benefit from the gall either. The gall is a reaction of the plant to the specific gall-making insect. The insect is concealed within the gall, and has to create an opening in the gall to get out when it is an adult.

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Allied Species found in Alberta

• Crane Fly Family  - Tipulidae
• Giant Crane Flies  - Tipula spp.
• Snow Crane Fly  - Chinonea nivalis
• Mosquito Family  - Culicidae
• Horse Fly Family  - Tabanidae
• Deer Flies  - Chrysops spp.
• Horse Flies  - Hybomitra spp.
• Gall Midge Family  - Cecidomyidae
• Robber Fly Family  - Asilidae
• Beeish Robber Flies  - Laphria spp.
• Bee Fly Family  - Bombyliidae
• Sand Dune Bee Fly  - Poecilanthrax willistoni
• Dance Fly Family  - Empidae
• Fruit Fly Family  - Tephritidae
• Goldenrod Gall Flies  - Eurosta spp.
• Hover Fly Family  - Syrphidae
• Leafmining Fly Family  - Agromyzidae
• Anthomyid Fly Family  - Anthomyiidae
• Dung Fly Family  - Scathophagidae
• House Fly Family  - Muscidae
• Blow Fly Family  - Calliphoridae
• Flesh Fly Family  - Sarcophagidae
• Parasitic Fly Family  - Tachinidae