New records of entomogenous plant galls and associated parasitoids from the Southern-Western Ghats, India

The rich biodiversity of the Southern-Western Ghats includes a large number of insect-induced plant galls. The present paper reports 60 new insect-induced galls on flowering plants belonging to 27 plant families, 35 genera and 39 species. Of the reported 60 galls, 52 are induced by the Cecidomyiidae (Diptera), six by the Hemiptera and two by the Hymenoptera. Forty-two species of gall-inducing insects were parasitised by parasitic Hymenoptera, assignable to 10 families. This study reports unique ‘hairy-caterpillar-like’ and ‘flower-like’ galls on the leaves of Trichilia connaroides (Meliaceae), Memecylon flavescens (Melastomataceae) and Tectona grandis (Lamiaceae), and fruit-like galls on Lannea coromandelica (Anacardiaceae), Phyllanthus emblica (Euphorbiaceae). Furthermore, we also report galls on Acacia caesia (Fabaceae: Mimosoid Clade), Boehmeria depauperata (Urticaceae), Cinnamomum perrottetii (Lauraceae), Centotheca lappacea (Poaceae) and Grewia serrulata (Malvaceae) of insect-induced galls of similar morphology, previously known in East-Asian, Southeast-Asian and Euro-Siberian regions.