Leaf galls of Garuga pinnata

Many years ago, when on trek to Borivali National Park, I spotted these curious but drab looking flowers and fruit on a small tree. On closer observation, I knew that those were neither flowers nor the fruits, as they were growing on the leaves. My curiosity made me open one of the fruits and I found a tiny insect inside the gall. 

At that time being ignorant about such things, I referred to some books (no internet at that time) and came to know that the adult female of this insect lays eggs on the leaves of the tree. The tree was Garuga pinnata, commonly known as Kakad or Kuruk in Marathi. 

As the eggs hatch the larvae mine in the leaf blade and as they start sucking the sap of the leaf, the galls are formed and the insects gets trapped in the galls. On maturity of the insect, the gall splits open like a flower and the mature insects are set free to carry on reproduction of their own species.

Leaf galls of Garuga pinnata

Gall insect of Garuga pinnata

This gall insect is a psyllid (Order Hemiptera: Family Psyllidae), a plant louse, and may be the gall-making psyllid, Phacopteron lentiginosum Buckton which has been recorded as occurring on Garuga pinnata.

Recently I saw some galls on Ficus racemosa (called as Umbar, Guler, Audumbar in Marathi, Gujarati and Sanskrit) tree at Karnala Bird Sanctuary in Panvel, Maharashtra. After slicing open a gall I could photograph the gall causing insect. The highlighted yellow circle in the gall shows the tiny insect. The inset shows magnified image of the same.

Leaf galls & gall causing insect on Ficus racemosa

Flower of Suran or Elephant Foot (Amorphophallus commutatus) and fruit of Kakad (Garuga pinnata)

Wild Suran or Elephant Foot (Amorphophallus commutatus) is a jungle herb in which the flowers are edible. In some communities, Kakad fruits are cooked alongwith the wild Suran flowers to make a tasty vegetable dish. These fruits make the harmful throat irritating chemicals in the Suran flowers harmless.