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Scale Insect
Conservation status: Least Concern
There are 39 species of Apiomorpha in Australia. Apiomorpha thorntoni is also found in New South Wales, ACT and Victoria.
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Scientific Classification
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Hemiptera
Eriococcidae
Apiomorpha
thorntoni
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This particular group of scale insects has evolved to live in protective gall structures. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or warts in animals. Female first instar nymphs induce the growth of a gall on a leaf or stem by irritating the surface with chemicals or possibly by mechanical damage. Each gall contains a single female nymph. Males then induce the growth of clusters of smaller galls on top of the existing female galls. After the galls are formed, the larvae develop inside until fully grown, when they leave.
Species in the genus Apiomorpha are usually found only on a small range of Eucalypt hosts. The nymphs induce a wide variety of different gall shapes and sizes, specific to each species. Apiomorpha thorntoni forms galls of this particular shape around the mid-veins of each leaf and it is typically found on Stringybarks. In Girraween, it is often found on Eucalyptus youmanii.
Ants are often attracted by the honeydew produced by the scale insects within the galls.
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