---

Hi,

I post this photo at the request of Michael von Tschirnhaus.

location: Estarreja (Portugal)
date: 19/03/2022

---

Chloropidae, Oscinellinae: Lipara lucens Meigen, 1830, the well known cigar gall fly of reed beds with its silvery-golden „fur“ of hairs around the body. In Europe it is the only Lipara species which produces firm lignified galls. Only one egg is deposited on a young shoot and the larva hinders the vegetation cone to produce normal leaves and the spike. The gall cannot be opened by tits during winter and contrary to the other sympatrical Lipara species. L. salina (Near East and Central Asia) has similarly protected lignified galls but those at the tip of very shortened stems on salty soil. A vast literature exists dealing with this large species and their many parasitoids and inquilines, see my forthcoming database „World Chloropidae online“. The fly and its easily available galls can serve as an optimal study object in ecological courses during the study of biology. About 50 other insect species can be obtained from their galls including other Lipara species which rarely occupy the young L. lucens galls as larval competitors. Burning reed beds in winter or harvesting the reed for mats and roofs kills this zoocoenosis, welcomed by migrating reed birds when they return from their wintering areals.