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guerilla_beehive_designs

GUERILLA BEEHIVE DESIGNS

oak apple gall
oak marble gall at Clancey's, Stanford

Insect galls are the highly distinctive plant structures formed by some herbivorous insects as their own microhabitats. They are plant tissue which is controlled by the insect. Galls act as both the habitat and food source for the maker of the gall. The interior of a gall can contain edible nutritious starch and other tissues. Some galls act as “physiologic sinks”, concentrating resources in the gall from the surrounding plant parts.Galls may also provide the insect with physical protection from predators.
Insect galls are usually induced by chemicals injected by the larvae or the adults of the insects into the plants, and possibly mechanical damage. After the galls are formed, the larvae develop inside until fully grown, when they leave. In order to form galls, the insects must seize the time when plant cell division occurs quickly: the growing season, usually spring in temperate climates, but which is extended in the tropics.

These galls are intresting (imo) thinking of a biomimicry approach for the Intelligent & Guerilla Beehive design:
Some herbivorous insects create their own micro-habitats by forming usually highly distinctive plant structures called galls, made up of plant tissue but controlled by the insect. Galls act as both the habitat, and food sources for the maker of the gall. The interior of a marble gall, formed from the bud, is composed of edible and other structural tissues.

Oak galls have been used in the production of ink since at least the time of the Roman Empire. From the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, iron gall ink was the main medium used for writing in the western world.

guerilla_beehive_designs.txt · Last modified: 2016/08/12 09:50 by ami