Bug FAQSaucer Gall Wasp
Feron gigas
The saucer gall wasp makes small circular galls about 3 to 4 mm wide with raised edges that can be red, pink, brown, or purple. Its other generation creates brown, cone-shaped galls and the insect lives on scrub, blue, and Engelmann oak leaves.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Galls from the all-female generation appear in shades of red, pink, brown, or purple. Galls from the bisexual generation are brown and cone-shaped.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
The winter-emerging, all-female generation produces galls that are 3 to 4 mm wide.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The all-female generation emerges in winter and makes small circular galls with raised edges. The bisexual generation produces brown, cone-shaped galls.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
The all-female generation emerges in winter.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Feron gigas, the saucer gall wasp, belongs to the genus Feron.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What do the galls of the saucer gall wasp look like?
Winter-emerging females make tiny circular galls 3 to 4 mm wide with raised edges that can be red, pink, brown, or purple, while the bisexual generation makes brown, cone-shaped galls.
Source: Wikipedia
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feron_gigas
Look it up elsewhere: iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.