Black and Yellow Mud Dauber
Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) like all sphecids are more closely related to bees than to the vespid wasps. They are solitary insects that build nests out of mud in sheltered locations, frequently on man-made structures. These nests are not aggressively defended, and stings are rare. Mud daubers make use of spiders to provision their cells. The black and yellow mud dauber’s nest is comprised of a series of cylindrical cells that are plastered over to form a smooth nest that may attain nearly the size of a human fist. After building a cell, the female wasp captures several spiders. The captured prey are stung and paralyzed before being placed in the nest, and then a single egg is deposited on the prey within each cell. The wasp then seals the cell with mud. After finishing a series of cells, she leaves and does not return. Eventually, the hatching larva will eat the prey and emerge from the nest. A common species of cuckoo wasp, Chrysis angolensis, is frequently a cleptoparasite in Sceliphron nests, and is only one of many different insects that parasitize these mud daubers.
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March 26th, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Wow!
Very cool macro.
I love to see insects like this.
All of your work looks very professional.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Dear Forest Wander,
Thanks for your wonderful comment, I wish to become like a professional. You have a vast collection of fantastic photographs at your site ForestWander Nature Photography. I was unable to find a place to leave comments over there. Glade creek Gristmill photograph was superb. You really have a heaven out there.
Regards
Krishna Mohan
March 31st, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Very nice.
I see that you are holding on to the 40D tag here.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Oh ok, the EXIF shows 40d so this must be the old one.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:16 PM
Yes Shiva they are from my 40D collection. I was sorting out 40D files and could not forget to post these.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Hi doc,
A portion of this pic seems overexposed. So it is a bit distracting. Otherwise nice write up
April 9th, 2009 at 3:19 PM
Thanks for dropping by and commenting on Black and Yellow Mud Dauber. I agree the highlight of the Grey granite nearer to the lens was distracting. I did not manipulate the photo, otherwise simple graduated filter using Adobe Lightroom would have masked that granite.
Regards
Krishna Mohan