Gall Adelgid - Infection

Infection

In the fall, the immature female adelgid, small, globular, and wingless (1.2-1.7 mm), finds a spruce to over-winter on. In the spring when the winter thaw occurs, the female matures and lays some eggs in what resemble sacks (totalling several hundred eggs) on the branches near the developing buds. These in fact are not sacks, but individual tufts of white waxy threads that protect the eggs. The females prefer areas on the spruce where they have greater protection from the elements, especially wind. These female individuals have an obvious patch of white wax wool as a covering. Their mouthparts consist of thread-like stylets which are used to penetrate into vascular bundles for feeding.

Once hatched, the young nymphs begin feeding around the base of the needles in a new bud. The nymphs's saliva introduced into the plant trigger the changes in development of the plant, distinguished by the thickening and expansion of the basal portion of needles towards the characteristic gall form. When there are incomplete infections, the side of the bud facing the ground will be infected first. Only partially afflicted buds can support new growth after the affected tissue has died.

The chamber at the base of each needle is not connected with any other chamber in the gall. This differentiates this infection from that caused by the woolly adelgid genus Pineus, where in that case the chambers are interconnected.

The nymphs are light brown when first hatched, becoming black when settled in gall chamber; they are flattened oval in shape and secrete a fringe of white wax. If a gall is opened in June, this white wax will be easily visible.