Black & Yellow Mud Dauber

Description:

Yellow and black sphecid wasp with brown wings.

Habitat:

Crawling on a squash vine at the base of a ridge on an organic farm. Soil nearby was quite sandy. Surrounded by mixed hardwood/pine forest

Notes:

Mud daubers are solitary wasps that build their nests out of mud. Columnar nests are usually built under man-made structures (bridges, porches, house eaves). Captured (and paralyzed) prey are delivered to the cells of these nests along with a single egg. The egg hatches and the larva will go through pupation. The trapped prey acts as a food source for the hatched larva before it emerges from the nest.