📜 EwA Week Highlights: The Galls of Summer (and 250k Observations!)

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights August 18, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the August 18th EwA highlights, back after a brief hiatus last week. As of today, EwA has officially reached 250,000 observations in our biodiversity projects on iNaturalist! Thanks to everyone who has contributed an observation along the way. I'm looking forward to seeing many more great observations from you all. 📸 Spend enough time learning about the ecosystems around you and at some point you are certain to become fascinated with galls, the abnormal growths in plants that can be caused by a host of different types of organisms. When vegetative growth is peaking around this time of year, the presence of galls is peaking as well. One such gall, pictured here, is caused by the buttonbush mite (Aceria cephalanthi). EwA iNaturalist Record (© Bill MacIndewar · Winchester, MA · Aug. 10, 2025)  Gall-making organisms can have quite complicated lifecycles. The grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) is an insect related to aphids that has one of the most complex lifecycles I’ve heard of, spanning multiple generations and eighteen discrete stages. Pictured here are the galls caused by the “leaf form” of this species.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© Claire O’Neill · Cambridge, MA · Aug. 11, 2025)  The usual suspects came in as most observed this week, with bumblebees and honeybees at the top of the list. Another species near the top this time around was the hump-backed beewolf (Philanthus gibbosus), a wasp that preys on bees by hunting near popular nectar plants such as goldenrods. The prey are then fed to their young. EwA iNaturalist Record (© kdemary · Arlington, MA · Aug. 14, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 918 observations of 495 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 250,039 observations of 12,983 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Summer [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike