Biology of insect galls, ecology of inhabitants, gall anatomy and development

瘿是一种非典型的、类似器官的植物生长，由特殊的昆虫引起，这些昆虫进化出了控制植物生长的能力，从而对昆虫有利。只有昆虫在这种联系中获益，因为它们被厚厚的细胞层包围着，这些细胞层提供了食物和住所。几种昆虫诱导植物瘿作为其生活史策略的一部分，但最常见和多样化的是蠓和瘿蜂。大多数瘿蜂攻击橡树和野玫瑰，每个物种都产生结构不同的瘿。双翅蜂属的黄蜂仅限于在野玫瑰上诱导瘿。世界上大约有42种Diplolepis，加拿大有13种，它们的胆囊大小不一，从叶子上的豌豆状小结构到茎上高尔夫球大小的大肿块。研究瘿的解剖和发育为了解植物如何控制自身发育提供了新的工具。虫瘿代表了离散的微生境，支持封闭的专业居民社区。虫瘿可以很容易地收集，观察和计算它们的居住者，以及推断它们之间的相互作用，使它们成为从种群动态到动物群落进化和动物地理等学科领域的有用研究系统。研究从加拿大南部到西北地区和安大略省北部的林木线的胆汁群落，可以深入了解冰川作用后动植物是如何进入加拿大的。它们还提供了一个研究全球变暖如何使玫瑰和与之相关的瘿虫向北移动的机会。一些国内的玫瑰，如Rosa rugosa，在加拿大东部、美国和欧洲已经变成了杂草，在安大略省发现的两种Diplolepis gallers正被认为是生物控制它们的代理人。

Galls are atypical, organ-like growths on plants caused by specialized insects that have evolved the ability to control the growth of plants to the insect's advantage. Only the insects gain in the association as they are surrounded by thick layers of cells that provide food and shelter. Several kinds of insects induce plant galls as part of their life history strategies, but the most common and diverse are midges and gall wasps. Most gall wasps attack oaks and wild roses and each species induces a structurally distinct gall. Wasps of the genus Diplolepis are restricted to inducing galls on wild roses. There are about 42 species of Diplolepis in the world and 13 in Canada with galls that vary in size from small pea-like structures on leaves to large swellings the size of golf balls on stems. Studying the anatomy and development of galls provides a novel tool for understanding how plants control their own development. Galls represent discrete microhabitats that support closed communities of specialist inhabitants and the ease by which galls can be collected, their occupants observed and counted, and the interactions among them inferred, make them useful study systems in subject areas ranging from population dynamics to the evolution and zoogeography of animal communities. Studying gall communities from southern Canada to the tree line in the NWT and northern Ontario provides insight into how flora and fauna moved into Canada following glaciation. They also provide an opportunity to study how global warming is allowing both roses and the gall insects associated with them to move further northward. Some domestic roses, such as Rosa rugosa, have become weeds in eastern Canada, the USA, and Europe, and two of the Diplolepis gallers found in Ontario are being considered as agents for their biological control.