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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps » Thread-waisted Wasps (Sphecidae) » Sceliphrinae » Mud-dauber Wasps (Sceliphrini) » Blue Mud-dauber Wasps (Chalybion) » Common Blue Mud-dauber Wasp (Chalybion californicum)
Photo#197247
Mud Dauber - Chalybion californicum - male
Copyright © 2008 Michael Lloyd

Mud Dauber - Chalybion californicum - Male
Weimar, Colorado County, Texas, USA
June 30, 2008
I don't think that "Mud Dauber" is the proper name for this wasp so I put it in the ID request section. I have no clue what they are doing but dozens of them swarm my hanging basket in the evenings.

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Mud Dauber - Chalybion californicum - male Mud Dauber - Chalybion californicum - male
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Contributed by Michael Lloyd on 4 July, 2008 - 8:04am
Last updated 10 September, 2014 - 7:31am

Moved
Moved from Blue Mud Wasps.
… John S. Ascher, 10 September, 2014 - 7:31am login or register to post comments

Males bedding down.
Males of Chalybion californicum (and presumably the other species of Chalybion found in the U.S.) will form large sleeping aggregations such as you describe. No idea why, but an interesting and harmless phenomenon. Females use the abandoned nests of Sceliphron for their own nests. They carry water to the nest and re-shape it to their needs. Sceliphron nests with an extraordinarily "lumpy" appearance are the 'urban renewal' efforts of a Chalybion.
… Eric R. Eaton, 4 July, 2008 - 4:52pm login or register to post comments

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