page_title: Pineapple gall adelgid
section_title: Physical appearance of the pineapple gall
hierarchical_section_title: Pineapple gall adelgid / Physical appearance of the pineapple gall
caption_attribution_description: Old Pineapple gall on a Norway Spruce branch
context_page_description: The Pineapple gall adelgid is a type of conifer-feeding insect that forms pineapple-shaped plant galls on its host species, commonly Norway and Sitka spruce. The adelgids are pear-shaped, soft-bodied green insects with long antennae, closely related to the aphid. "Adelges" lays up to one hundred eggs at a time, one on each needle. Adelges abietis is one of the most common species; synonyms are A. gallarum-abietis, Chermes abietis and Sacciphantes abietis.
  The pineapple or pseudocone gall is a type of insect-formed gall, or abnormal outgrowth of plant tissue, that develops as a chemically induced distortion of needles, observed mostly on Norway spruce and Sitka spruce.
context_section_description: The gall is formed from the swelling of the bases of the needles punctured by the feeding activity and activated by the saliva of the insect. The unilarval chambers are set in a woody core. The stem and needles of the host can continue growing beyond the position of the gall.
  Sitka and Norway spruce are the main hosts, but A. abietis galls can be found on Colorado blue, white, and red spruces.
  The yellowish green galls pass through pink and then reddish-brown colour phases. On average, they measure 1.5 to 3.0 cm in length.
  Similar galls are produced by other aphids: on Sitka spruce, by the Cooley spruce gall adelgid, Gilletteela cooleyi, some generations of which migrate to Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia); and on spruce by Cnaphalodes sp., which is heteroecious with larch. The Cooley spruce gall adelgids form a larger gall, 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) long, which usually covers the entire tip of infested new growth.
caption: An old pineapple pseudocone gall on a Norway spruce branch.
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