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Photo#816144
Wasp trio - Sceliphron caementarium

Wasp trio - Sceliphron caementarium
Lakeland, Polk County, Florida, USA
August 2, 2013
I don't normally take pictures of wasp type bugs but I was fascinated by what was going on here. I don't know what is going on but I watched this trio for several minutes until they flew off together in the bushes.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

 
Sexing by the abdomens?
Ken, I noticed that most of the images in this species are not sexed and I also filmed one up close and so I wanted to check on the sex, before posting it. However, now I'm not sure if it is possible at all. On the other hand, if you look at these three wasps here, (I'm assuming that the female is the one on the bottom.) do the male's abdomens have more, skinnier sections than the female's? Is this a reliable method or can you tell anything by the size or shape of the antennas? Thanks

 
Your guess is as good as mine :)
Two of the three individuals identified as males in the Guide have conspicuously curled antennae, so that might be a good characteristic. I'm not seeing it in this shot, however. Most of the females in the Guide seem to have been identified by their association with nests or nesting materials, rather than morphology.

Maybe someone will come along to enlighten us--or maybe, as you suggest, it's just not very easy to sex these critters.

 
The female is on the bottom.
Her abdominal segments show up nicely here. T1 is mostly yellow and very small. The other five are all dark. - 6 of them = ♀
Both of the males are showing 7 abdominal segments and you can count the flagellomeres on some of their antennae. - 11 of them = ♂

Black and yellow Mud-Dauber (Sceliphron caementarium)
Despite the medium quality of this pic, I think it's worthy to be kept in BG.

2 m one female
in a tussle to mate.