The gall known as the Rose Bedeguar or Robin's Pincushion is a common, strikingly conspicuous and attractive gall, usually found on wild dog roses. It is caused by a tiny gall wasp, Diplolepis rosae, that lays its eggs in the plant's leaf buds. Many amateur and professional entomologists have studied this gall over the last hundred years or so and the results of their research are scattered in numerous specialist journals and other publications.
This book reviews this wealth of scientific literature on the Rose Bedeguar in order to summarise our present knowledge of it. In doing so, it brings together for the first time all these disparate pieces of research and organises them into a detailed account of the life history of Diplolepis rosae.
A second volume on bedeguar galls, The Natural History of the Rose Bedeguar Gall - Field Work and Keys to the Insect Inhabitants, was published in 2013.