A Robin's Pincushion (Bedeguar Gall) isn't just a home for the wasp larvae that caused the gall to form, it is a thriving miniature ecosystem. The nutritious and insulated environment of the gall attracts a complex community of secondary occupants. These insect invaders can be divided into two categories: inquilines (which eat the plant tissue) and parasitoids (which eat the insects).

• Inquilines: The Lodgers - opportunists that have don't have the ability to induce galls themselves, so they lay their eggs in the galls created by other species.
• Primary Parasitoids: The Assassins - carnivorous wasps that pierce the gall from the outside, using long, drill-like ovipositors to lay their eggs directly on or inside the developing Diplolepis rosae larvae.
• Hyperparasitoids: The Assassins of Assassins - The food web goes one step further. Because the gall is so crowded with the larvae of inquilines and primary parasitoids, a third wave of wasps arrives to prey on them. To complicate matters further, late-arriving wasps like Torymus bedeguaris (like the one shown above energing from a Bedeguar Gall) can also sometimes act as hyperparasitoids, laying their eggs inside the larvae of primary parasitoids rather than the original gall maker.
       
  In all, around 30 different species inhabit Bedeguar Galls. If you keep a Robin's pincushion in a jar over winter to watch the insects emerge, the majority of the tiny wasps that hatch will not be the Diplolepis rosae that caused the gall, but a diverse cast of freeloaders and predators.

The Robin's Pincushion gall is one of 100 Indicator Species being used to monitor the health of wildlife by the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Please record every sighting! Look out for the golfball-sized hairy galls on Dog Rose. Old galls can persist for a year or more and can be recorded.