#blue mud dauber wasp

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Common Blue Mud Dauber Wasp - Chalybion californicum

Returning from the long weekend cottage trip in Caledon, I'm so excited to share all the new insects I photographed there! There'll be quite a few to explore over the next few weeks, but before that, a prelude featuring an insect on hunt while we were loading the car. I've also added a few pictures from the beginnings of my insect photography hobby to show the insect in a more neutral position. As mentioned in earlier posts, solitary Digger Wasps make ground burrows or nests (this specie builds cells into a nest out of mud) and place their eggs inside. The eggs await a provision of food which the mother Wasp tirelessly hunts for; when the former hatch, they will have enough solid food to last them through to pupation. The Blue Mud Dauber's prey items of choice are spiders: any kind as long as they can be captured. While a video would've been better in hindsight to show how she hunts, they pictures before you here showcase the stinging and seizing inflicted by a mother Wasp. When we all first noticed her, he was flying around the garage door but not in an erratic fashion.

She was flying around systemically, combing as much air space as she could along the border of the garage door (occasionally landing) until reaching the top where she found cobwebs. I was grateful as while flying and landing these Wasps are very skittish making photography difficult, but little did I know what was really going on. After navigating her way closer to the web, she used her legs and head to twang and create movement in web, drawing the attention of a spider that crawled out from a dense web ball. The trap was set! In about 3 seconds, the spider rushed to investigate the "prey" entangled in the web and at the last second, the Wasp launched herself and enveloped the spider with her legs. By grappling the spider, the Mud Dauber can orient herself to navigate her paralyzing sting into the spider and then restrain it for easier transportation. This, along with the advantage of flight allows Wasps to effectively hunt and capture spiders, but they shouldn't get too arrogant as the winner is always the one who gets the last bite. This time, mama Wasp won. After the spider stopped struggling, the Dauber dropped from the threads and flew off, carrying her prize with her back to her muddy nest.

Pictures of the hunt were taken on June 30, 2023 with a Google Pixel 4. Supplementary pictures were taken on June 27 and September 11, 2018 with a Samsung Galaxy S4.

[thedawner]

Dowze is a Blue Mud Dauber Wasp who likes to do plein-air works (she likes to daub geddit—now why’d I say that). So far she’s sold off only pieces that have a luscious abdomen inserted somewhere in the image.

She was designed by @bongwaterdrinker69 ! Might turn her into a fursona and A Bug’s Life fan character.

[cloud-ya]

sudden return of wasp mei as big ass wasp got into my bathroom recently

[onenicebugperday]

@illogicalghost submitted: hi! i have 3 bugs to share ^_^ first is a wasp(?) that looks really cool. i think the one on the left in the second photo might also be a wasp? it flew up to this cricket on the right and landed on top of it, and they walked around together. not sure if it was trying to eat the cricket or what. it was like an inch long and shiny black, very pretty. they were found in southern wisconsin. 🐝🦗

Hello! They are both definitely wasps yes. The first is a yellow-legged mud-dauber and the second is likely a steel-blue cricket-hunter given its prey there! Great black digger wasps will also prey on crickets (and other Orthopterans) but their bodies are not as blue as this one is. Anyhoo she's gonna bring that cricket to her nest for her babies to nibble :)

[stonefly-with-a-pen]

bug yuri. that’s it that’s the post

[angelnumber27]

rip

[little-creature-of-the-day]

little creature of the day: blue mud dauber

blu

image source

[jack-o-cel]

Saw the most prettiest lady today! She had a perfect body, and color! Absolutely gorgeous ❤️❤️❤️

Bug tw

She’s a Blue Mud Dauber Wasp! Apparently, based on surface research, she’s a non aggressive species of wasp. So if you leave her alone, she’ll leave you alone

Definitely recommend searching up professional pictures of them! Absolutely gorgeous bug

[waspcup]

ignoring the fact that you already assigned me a bug. i want more insect

hmm i already said jumping spider but you could also be a blue mud dauber . to me

[scarecrowscribe]

I never feel so lucky as when a glimpse of unexpected colour leads me to meet a new acquaintance. Lovely lovely lovely. I was so struck by the iridescent blue that I didn't recognize familiar forms. I'm fairly certain this is mud-dauber wasp. Less certain of particular species.

[drea-s-artblog]

Sybil full body ref

[jenfoundabug]

Gorgeous metallic blue wasp we rescued from the pool. I'm pretty sure its a blue mud dauber (Chalybion californicum) since I often see these guys grabbing water from the pool.

[thedawner]

Dowze drawing done in MS Paint.

[shownumetal]

holli keeps finding mud daubers around the house and today it was my turn

[onenicebugperday]

what could this thing be 🤔 from chicago

A friend! And a pal :')

It's a thread-waisted wasp in the family Sphecidae, probably a nearctic blue mud dauber.

[woozymitts]

European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) ♂ Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) Five-banded Thynnid Wasp (Myzinum quinquecinctum) Common Blue Mud-dauber Wasp (Chalybion californicum) Chrysidini sp. Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp (Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus) Megachile sp. Parallel-striped Sweat Bee (Halictus parallelus) Myzinum maculatum ♀ Archytas apicifer? Goldenrod Soldier Beetle (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) Archytas apicifer? Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) ♀ Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) ♂ Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) ♀ Lobed Mason Wasp (Ancistrocerus antilope) Narrow-headed Marsh Fly (Helophilus fasciatus) Hawthorn Mining Bee (Andrena crataegi)? Vespula Sp.

Foaming at the mouth at the absolute biodiversity in my yard this year! We have this bush in the yard that the wasps, bees and flies are obsessed with, which is where I took most of the pictures.

I also noticed these HUGE flies which I've never seen before. Usually if you even look in the general direction of a fly it immediately takes off but these ones could not care less, I could put my hand right up to them and they didn't move until I physically touched them.

Also once again completely baffled by the people who talk about how "aggressive" and "mean" wasps are and how they constantly get stung. What are you guys doing??? None of the above species gave a single shit about me shoving my macro lens in their faces, and if it was windy I would sometimes grab the branch they were on to hold it steady and none of them even reacted.

The queen bee (which has a stinger unlike the males) also made no effort to sting me, after picking her up for a photo she actually refused to get off of my hand because she wanted to sit on me and groom her face.

We've also had lots of yellowjackets (I'm so bad at IDing them so no idea on species) approaching us recently and checking us out, flying extremely close and looking at us and then flying away. Even if I put my hand up in front of them to see if they want to land they sort of just look at it and then fly away.

Last year there were paper wasps on nests in my yard and they would stare at me warily but never sting me when I photographed them.

Also feel free to ID things on my iNaturalist or correct me on any IDs here!