Chapter 3 – Policy Implications for Gaelic - University of Edinburgh

economic planning unit, the fieldwork location was moved to Taiwan and Yunnan
Province, China, and the expedition went ahead in March and April 2011. The team
of three University of Edinburgh PhD students was joined by a student from National
Chung-Hsing University (NCHU), Taichung, Taiwan and was hosted in Taiwan by
Professor Man-Miao Yang of NCHU and in China by Professor Charles Cannon of
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens. The expedition aim was to survey
species of two genera of tropical oak trees for galls induced by the larvae of novel
species of Cynipini gallwasps since research to date has focused on temperate oaks.
Specimens of these new species were collected for taxonomic curation and to test an
'out of Asia' hypothesis of gall wasp origin. This posits that oak gall wasps originated
in Asia on tropical hosts and, not as previously assumed, in the Nearctic (North
America, including Greenland and the highlands of Mexico).
Galls were collected at various field sites located between 400 and 2200 m elevation
in Taiwan and China. At each site relevant trees were identified and accessible
foliage examined for galls with the aid of extendable pole pruners or rope based
canopy access techniques. Gallwasp larvae develop within individual chambers
inside the galls, and it was possible to distinguish Cynipini galls and those of other
types by dissecting a single gall. Cynipini galls were collected in the field and were
taken to the host laboratories and reared in ventilated containers. Emerging adult
wasps were photographed and sorted into morpho-types based on their external
morphology, which is distinctive of a particular generation of an individual species.
Gallwasp galls were sampled from tree species in each of the genera Castanopsis,
Lithocarpus, and Quercus, in both Taiwan and China. The majority of collected galltypes
were novel (85/115), and their discovery represents a substantial addition to
knowledge of Asian gallwasps. Analysis of the number of gall-types per individual
tree species indicated that there was no significant difference in gall diversity
between the three tree genera. This is somewhat surprising, as almost all currently
described species are associated with trees of the genus Quercus. Approximately
450 species of Quercus are known globally, which is comparable to the combined
number of Castanopsis and Lithocarpus species. If the true diversity of gallwasps per
tree species is even remotely similar across these taxa, as these findings suggest,
then Asia is likely to be home to hundreds more undescribed gallwasp species
representing a considerable proportion of the tribe. Specimens of adult gallwasps
have so far been obtained for 17 gall types. These shall be transferred to the
University of Edinburgh for extraction of DNA, and novel species shall be formally
described in collaboration with taxonomic experts. Based on the expedition’s results,
three manuscripts are under preparation for submission to scientific journals.
Ms Ellie Greenhalgh
Secretary to the Expeditions Committee
Dr Kate Heal
Convenor of the Expeditions Committee
14 February 2012
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