Just a couple of dark taxa hanging out...

Gall midge!

I remember when I first learned about these and couldn't wait for the next rain to see their "tentacles"! Interestingly, I've found caterpillars feeding on the inside of some in May in Wyoming. Have you noticed anything like that?

I'm so glad you were able to find some! I can't not look for galls whenever I am outside, they're fantastical!

Cecidology without the ethno is just as fun as well. A gall, by the way, is a growth on a plant, made of the plant's tissues, but caused by another organism that lives out part of its life in the growth.

Ethnocecidology: the relationship between people and galls, for example the US constitution is written in iron gall ink, which is way more permanent than sharpie btw ; ) or how people have used galls as medicine and food. Containers full of galls were preserved from the 79 CE Mt Vesuvius eruption.

That's great! I collected some galls like that, but they didn't have bud scales in them, just the inner case was present. They are also destined for sequencing. It'll be interesting to compare!

Nice finds! While wasps do induce galls, the goldenrod gall on the left is actually caused by a fly! However, wasps do parasitize this gall. That Wasp Guy has a great graphic depicting the parasitic community of the gallfly (Eurosta solidaginis) www.etsy.com/listing/1463...

Are you in AK right now?

The leaf the galls and mite above came from.