#mud-dauber wasp

[platycryptus]

this mud dauber wasp (Sceliphron caementarium) seemed distressed about something in her clay nest. Turns out it had been commandeered by a keyhole wasp (Pachodynerus nasidens), who was now aggressively asserting ownership

keyhole wasps, which hunt weevils and other small beetles, will opportunistically nest in any sort of small cavity (such as a keyhole). The existing literature on this species doesn’t say anything about taking over other wasp‘s nests, only that they sometimes refurbish abandoned nests, but I guess this one didn’t get the memo.

This isn't the worst of their mischief though- they also have a habit of building nests that clog up the airspeed measuring instruments in planes and have caused several fatal crashes.

(Florida, 10/6/21)

[ljsbugblog]

this Mud-dauber Wasp chose our windowsil to build her nest! after a bit of investigation of me and my camera, she graciously allowed me to photograph her while she worked on her construction.

in the photos above, she has arrived with a ball of mud collected from somewhere nearby. this nest isn't for her to live in, but for her young to grow and pupate. in this mass of mud she will craft several individual cells, and provision them all with the paralysed bodies of orb-weaver spiders. each cell will have a single egg laid on the first spider, before being sealed off with more mud.

here, she picks the next spot to deposit her ball of mud, using her mandibles to smooth it onto the structure. when the larvae hatch, they will consume all the spiders in their respective cells, before pupating and then emerging as adults wasps.

each time she finished with a layer of mud, she would take a moment to groom her forelegs and antennae, before flying off to repeat the process. these photos were taken earlier in the Summer, and as of posting this, the adult wasps have yet to emerge.

Covered-cell Mud-dauber Wasp, female (Sceliphron laetum).

[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.

[anomalouscorvid]

my wasp girl whose hands have not been replaced with knives yet

[cloud-ya]

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

[celestialmacros]

Wasp sploot

Yellow-Legged Mud-dauber Wasp (Sceliphron caementarium)

August 20, 2024

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Tinicum, Pennsylvania

[teenysnel]

The whiplash you experience when you’re reading a Wikipedia article about a group of wasps and you see this

[arachnophanatic]

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a dead specimen here before, but I found this one and I was mesmerized.

I think she (?) is a mud-dauber wasp in the genus Chalybion.

[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 :)

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 16TH, 2024 | Image IDs: Three photos of a black organ pipe mud dauber on a wet, green leaf /End IDs.]

[acarinarium]

Yesterday I found a mud dauber building a nest above our flat so I'm going to try checking up on her every so often! She's so cute, she sounds like a little helicopter when she flies

All this progress in the space of a couple hours! I never knew they worked so quickly

[ljsbugblog]

just for fun, a compilation of every wasp species I've seen drink from the pond so far.

Spider Wasp, genus Fabriogenia.

Potter Wasp, subfamily Eumeninae.

Potter Wasp, genus Paralastor.

Square-headed Wasp, subfamily Crabroninae.

Vase-cell Mud-dauber Wasp, Sceliphron formosum.

Square-headed Wasp, genus Pison.

Australian Paper Wasp, Polistes humilis.

[thedawner]

Dowze drawing done in MS Paint.

[backyardentomologist]

A Blue Mud Wasp, also known as the nearctic blue mud-dauber, takes a quick break on a milkweed leaf. Mud daubers are solitary wasps, meaning that they live on their own, and get their name from their use of mud in the construction of their nests. These nests often resemble tiny clay pots, and it is not unusual to see mud daubers busily collecting mud from open dirt following a rain storm.

While blue mud daubers can (and do) build their own nests, they prefer to steal the nests of other wasps and bees, especially nests made by other species of mud dauber.

While mud daubers primarily eat nectar from flowers, they also predate on spiders, using their powerful stingers to paralyze their prey. Different species of mud dauber have different hunting styles, and as a result will target specific species of spider.

The blue mud dauber is famous for its predation of the extremely dangerous black widow spider, which is one of only two species of spider in North America that is capable of killing a human.

[stonefly-with-a-pen]

bug yuri. that’s it that’s the post

[mothbuddies]

Ready for my display