I have observed several times that utricles of Carex section Phacocystis (C. acuta, C. trinervis, C. elata) display utricles deformed. I have seen that in Spanish, Italian and Japanese materials. Once, I opened a few of them and I found a small maggot inside. Does anyone knows which wasp/fly can be responsible of this disease?
Anguina caricis is a nematode species (oligotroph, narrow host range) forming a colony oriiginated from one inseminated female; a colony consists 2-3 generations of nematode females, males and J3 and J4 juveniles (J1 molting to J2 in an egg), J2 is rare quickly molting to J3. But there are no insect larvae inside the nematode gall.
Thanks for the information.
I would ensure that I saw the ringed pattern of an insect larvae, but I will check again the materials!
You may check your galls even from your herbarium, better not older than 2-3 years; carsh galls into tap water in Petri dish, and leave for 1-5 hours, if nematodes are present they will escape and move into water, you may see them under the stereomicroscope, size 0.5-0.8 mm for juveniles and 1-4 mm for adults, they may survive in anhydrobiotic state (diapause) because of the disaccharide protector (trehalose).
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