any of several different species of insects that cause swelling (galls) in the tissues of the plants they feed on. This group includes gall midges and certain fruit flies (order Diptera), gall wasps (order Hymenoptera), some aphids (order Homoptera), and certain species of moths (order Lepidoptera).
In most gall-making species of Diptera and Hymenoptera, the female deposits an egg into plant tissue. Upon hatching, the larva produces substances that cause the plant tissue to proliferate around the feeding larva. In most gall-making Lepidoptera and Homoptera, either the immature larva bores into the plant (Lepidoptera) or the plant tissue grows over the feeding nymph (Homoptera).
The galls are usually characteristic for the species that causes them. The goldenrod gall fly is one of the most common.
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