Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp Male, Wing Venation | Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp Male, Ventral | |||||
Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||
Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | ||||
Family: | Mud Dauber & Sand Wasp (Wasp: Sphecidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
Species: | Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp (Sceliphron laetum) | ||||
This Photo: | Male, Antenna & anterior | ||||
Other names: | Common Mud Dauber Wasp, Covered-cell Mud-dauber Wasp, Yellow or Black Thread-waisted Wasp or Yellow and Black Mud-dauber Wasp | ||||
Thank you Reiner Richter for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~20mm long, ~26mm wingspan. A large wasp with a thread waist, and large mandibles. Collects mud to build cells, a nest, for it's young. When it flies it hangs it's legs making it look even bigger. There is another, very similar wasp in SA, Sceliphron formosum; which has all black antennae, black on the legs where they join the body and a black face. As you can see here, S. laetum has yellow antennae (at least near the head), yellow leg joins to the body and a yellow face. The rear leg colour is different too. | |||||
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