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Black and yellow mud dauber

Sceliphron caementarium

Description:

An interesting introduced species of Thread-waisted or sphecid wasp; some 3 cm in length. The body of this wasp is mainly black (including antennae, and eyes), with some yellow markings on thorax, while its legs are mainly yellow. The wings are a tawny colour. Petiole or waist is black, about half the length of the entire abdomen, the abdomen is black with yellow propodeum (abdomen first segment).

Habitat:

An interesting introduced species of Thread-waisted wasp, native to New World, but well established now in Mediterranean parts of Europe. Here, observed several times on banks of river Krka, always close to ground, in magnificent Krka NP in Croatia. In this highly protected area, Krka river forms a series of waterfalls and lakes; it is surrounded by a magnificent dense broad-leaved forest, and its shallow coastal waters are rich in vegetation.

Notes:

This sphecid wasp was a bit of challenge to ID, as this was the first time I got interested in them, thanks to these two. The difficulty was to ID it correctly from a Mediterranean species Sceliphron madraspatanum, to which I did not find many information. However, it seems that S. madraspatanum has yellow petiole or waist.

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Zlatan Celebic
Spotted by
Zlatan Celebic

Croatia

Spotted on Jul 6, 2018
Submitted on Jul 29, 2018

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