My first visit to my field site was just over two weeks ago… and there wasn’t much to see! Not from this year anyways. Turns out central Minnesota is having a rather late spring.
You can see; however, if you look very closely, hundreds of prior years Solidago stems, with galls of Eurosta solidaginis, the Goldenrod Ball Gall Fly.
Up close, some of these Solidago stems have multiple Eurosta galls (left) – this one had four ! A new lab record!
We also found some Gnorimoschema galls, the Goldenrod Elliptical Gall Moth (below, right). I’m not sure which species of Gnorimoschema made these though.
Some pictures with actual green (and maybe even insects!) coming soon…
Chandra Moffat 