WASP WOMB

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 11:51.
An oak apple gall is pretty amazing. The image shows the inside of a gall which was cut open with an exacto knife.   This gall is about one inch in diameter.
 
The wasp has developed chemicals which, when inserted into the oak leaf, hi-jacts the oak DNA to cause the oak to construct a womb for the wasp egg.   A real-life "invasion of the body snatchers"
Just as in a human womb, where the fetus obtains its energy via an umbilical connection to the wall of the womb, the wasp chemical causes the oak leaf to build a round ball and inside the ball are hundreds of fiber connections to the inside of the ball.   All the fibers connect to the center of the ball and nourish the wasp egg.
 
If a wasp can make a tree be its womb, then cows can be made to produce spider web liquid, instead of milk (which is being tried now)

 

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REALNEO photo

Submitted by lmcshane on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 13:14.

  Jeff is this one of your photos??  Amazing.  Beautiful..
 

Photo credit on OakGall

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 15:31.

Thanks Laura.  Yes. I had cut the gall open and it was laying on a glass table top when the late afternoon sun came in horizontally and hit the gall dead on.   I cut the f stop way down (f11) and under exposed to black out the background.  In  Photoshop I applied filter, sharpen, "unsharp mask" and tweaked the shading through image, adjustments, shadow/highlights. That's it.

Galls - bird lunch box

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 12:09.

A friend sent me this link to a painting of a Downy woodpecker attacking the gall of the goldenrod gallfly.