The oak-galls are formed only where a gall-insect has pricked
a live leaf or stem or twig with her sharp, sting-like little
egg-layer, and has left an egg in the plant tissue. Nor does
the gall begin to form even yet. It begins only after the young
gall-insect is hatched from the egg, or at least begins to
develop inside the egg. Then the gall grows rapidly. The tree
sends an extra supply of sap to this spot, and the plant-cells
multiply, and the house begins to form around the little white
grub. Now this house or gall not only encloses and protects the
insect, but it provides it with food in the form of plant-sap
and a special mass or layer of soft, nutritious plant-tissue
lying right around the grub. So the gall-insect not only lives
in the house, but eats it!--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect
Stories.”
(2165)
See REMAINS.