Fern Glen Essays
Mother Knows Best
by Judy Sullivan

When we last left our heroine Eurosta solidaginis (the goldenrod gall fly), she had perished after a noble, yet typical, maternal sacrifice. We followed her painstaking search for the perfect goldenrod in which to place one of up to a hundred tiny eggs. If she selected a plant with a generous response, her egg would be well nourished in a large gall. If she selected a plant that was less warm in its welcome, the resulting provision would be small, and her young one might go hungry. Given her well-developed sense of taste and her innate wisdom, the choice was an easy one. Or was it? Few decisions in life are simple. This is especially true where a mother's hopes for her children are involved.

Most parents fear the perils of poverty for their offspring. Wise parents also recognize the risks of riches (Please note that I am very wise.). Our young mother was faced with a difficult choice.

Once again, imagine yourself as a goldenrod gall larva living inside a palatial gall. Nothing disturbs the sense of security that you experience, slumbering within walls that are thick and secure. Outside there is a flash of red, a flutter of feathers, and a bright, beady eye fixed on your position. Suddenly, the room rocks violently. Deafening drumming. A jackhammer in your soulless being. An enormous beak is thrust through the wall. Resistance is futile. You find yourself seized, shaken and shoved down the gullet of a downy woodpecker. Three stems to the left, one of your four score siblings faces the same grisly fate beneath the beak of a black-capped chickadee.

Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away, smug snug grubs in more modest galls relish the fate of the former objects of their envy. They wag their neck-less heads and curl themselves in tight balls secure in the knowledge that their relatively impoverished status makes them unattractive targets. The birds chose the largest galls.

The solution is simply to live in a smaller gall. The living isn't easy, but it's certainly sufficient. No beaks through walls, no harsh awakenings, no unplanned trips. Safe and sound. Right? Wrong.

In spring, after the young Eurosta hatch and grow, and the gall walls thicken, new enemies stalk the stems of goldenrod. Mordellistena beetles lay their eggs on the outside of the gall. The young hatch and burrow their way into the gall chamber. An uninvited and persistent guest that consumes your food and crowds your space is tedious. However, knowing that your unwanted roommate may consume you, as well, is most upsetting.

If threats of beetles leave you unimpressed, there are always parasitic wasps. Eurytoma stab the galls and place tiny ticking bombs, in the form of eggs, inside the larva itself. These hatch with the single-minded purpose of attacking and consuming the larval gall fly...from the inside out. Illusions of infant innocence are shattered.

Both the beetle and the wasps, lacking powerful beaks, seek smaller galls with thinner walls. No matter whether the female gall fly selects a goldenrod with the resources of Julia Child's pantry or Mother Hubbard's bare cupboard, the risk of her offspring becoming food for another are much the same.

Does mother really know best? It would seem that all she can do is try. However, she can forget the notion of shielding the delicate minds of her children by forbidding them to watch TV. They only have to look outside.

Questions, comments, or other feedback to Judy Sullivan.