Ants Carry Wasps’ Oak Galls, Not Seeds, Revealing a Hidden Plant-Insect Pact
An 8-year-old in Pennsylvania spotted ants carrying pale objects he thought were seeds; they were actually oak galls formed by wasps on red oaks. The galls have a cap rich in fatty acids that mimic seed elaiosomes, prompting ants to haul them to their nests, eat the cap, and leave the wasp larva inside. This three‑way interaction (ant–oak–wasp) shows a wasp hijacking a plant signal for its own propagation and reframes the classic seed-dispersal story as an exploitation, with galls common across eastern U.S. oaks.
