Gall-inducing insect Gall-inducing insect A gall-inducing insect is any insect that can cause the growth of galls within plants. The term gall fly is also used to cover these species, although most are not true flies. There are several groups of insects that meet this description. They include the gall wasps, scales, gall midges, aphids, psyllids and certain species of leafminer flies. Galls are growth deformities induced in certain plants by various insects which are mostly species-specific. The gall's form or type depends on what organism is attacking the plant and where the plant is being attacked. Based on the form, there
Meat ant The meat ant was first described in 1858 by British entomologist Frederick Smith in his "Catalogue of Hymenopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum part VI", under the binomial name "Formica purpurea" from a holotype worker ant he collected in Melbourne, Victoria. The type material is currently housed in the Natural History Museum, London. In 1862, Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr erected the genus "Iridomyrmex", and reclassified the meat ant as a member of "Iridomyrmex" rather than the genus "Formica". The ant was named "Iridomyrmex purpurea" in 1862. Mayr renamed the ant as "Iridomyrmex purpureus" one year after. "I.