Aulacidea hieracii (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms. Aulax graminis Cameron, 1875, Aulax artemisiae Thomson, 1877, Aulax foveigera Thomson, 1877, Aulax crassinervis Thomson, 1877, Aylax sabaudi Hartig, 1840, Aulacidea cacaliae Belizin, 1959.

Gall. In stems, multilocular, differently shaped, large, hard and fuzzy galls; the stem is malformed. The gall develops on the stem or at the base of the leaf rosette, 40 mm long, 10-15 mm in diameter, usually spindle-like, sometimes rounded. During the development, leaves are coming out from it. The surface of the gall is covered with hairs. The gall loosing its hairs after overwintering and the bases of hairs are visible only on a glabrous epidermis. The parenchyma of the gall soft, spongy, with rounded larval cells. The number of larval cells is decreasing towards the center of the gall. The gall is green when young and growing, turns brown when mature. The shoot above the gall is malformed, abnormally short. Sometimes galls develop on the leaves which are lying on the ground.

Host plant. Hieracium murorum L., H. umbellatum L., H. verruculatum Link, H. virosum Pall., H. vulgatum L. (Asteraceae). Biology. Galls mature in autumn, larvae overwinter in the gall, adults emerge next spring, in May (Zerova et al. 1988).

Distribution. Iran, Lorestan (Ghelaei or Gharaei) and Azerbaijan-e Gharbi provinces (vicinity of Kelïsä Kandï village, 37º29′N, 45º01′E, 1600 m a.s.l., 2.5 km SW Urmia) -- a new record for Iran. Europe (Melika 2006), Far East of Russia (Kovalev 1965), Transcaucasus (Zerova et al. 1988).

- George Melika, Younes Karimpour: (2012) Herb gallwasp fauna of Iran (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Aylacini)^©