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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) » Black Mud-dauber Wasps (Sceliphron) » Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp (Sceliphron caementarium)
Photo#560614
larvae and dead spiders - Sceliphron caementarium
Copyright © 2011 Heather Bilden

larvae and dead spiders - Sceliphron caementarium
Lavina, Golden Valley County, Montana, USA
August 9, 2011
This mud "nest" was found on the underside of a rock - there are three larvae, and the other two cavities are packed with spiders. We are thinking they are wasps - do wasps cache food for the larvae when they hatch like this?
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Contributed by Heather Bilden on 10 August, 2011 - 12:46pm
Last updated 3 September, 2011 - 4:24pm

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… Charley Eiseman, 3 September, 2011 - 4:24pm login or register to post comments

Wasp, yes.
This could be the work of the Black and Yellow Mud Dauber--or at least something with a similar life cycle. The female builds a mud nest that consists of a series of cells. She lays an egg in each cell, and provisions it with prey (spiders) on which her young will feed.

Looking at your photo, I see one pupa (which might actually be something that parasitized the wasp nest); two fully grown wasp larvae that have consumed all of their food, and three cells full of spider prey (each of which will also contain a wasp egg or a small larva).
… Ken Wolgemuth, 29 August, 2011 - 7:42pm login or register to post comments

 
The pupa is a muddauber
pupa, I just saw on eclosing
… margarethe brummermann, 25 April, 2013 - 2:36pm login or register to post comments

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