Once the nest is complete, they will collect beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars
One day I decided to work from the deck that is right outside my bedroom. While I was sitting there, I noticed that a fraternal potter wasp was coming and going. It wasn’t bothering me at all, but its constant flight piqued my curiosity. I investigated by looking under the railing that it kept landing under. Sure enough, I came across the nest that it was building. Like other potter wasps, this fraternal potter wasp was building up a nest using mud.
The nests that are built by potter wasps is developed slowly by the female wasps. They typically regurgitate water and mix it with soil (although some species use chewed plant material instead). They will take a ball of this and fly it to their nest site. They then add this to the nest that they are constructing. Once the nest is complete, they will collect beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars. They paralyze them and place them into the cell of the nest. This will serve as the food for a single wasp larva. When the larva hatches from the egg, it will feed on the prey for a few weeks before pupating. This lifecycle can take from a few weeks to a full year.
The fraternal potter wasp grows to be about 0.6 to 0.8 inches long. The male typically has smaller wings than the female. They are found throughout the eastern part of the United States and Canada. Their habitat includes glades, rough shrubbery, and the edges of forests.
I love the intricacy of this nest. You can see the many trips that it must have taken to build it. Each overlapping layer was one trip with a ball of mud that the female brought to the nest. The flute at the front of the nest was built over four trips. These insects are artisans on a tiny scale.
The male typically has smaller wings than the female
Did you know?
- The potter wasp subfamily of vespids is the most diverse. There are almost 200 unique genera. There are more than 3,000 species across these genera.
- The scientific name of the fraternal potter wasp is Eumenes fraternus.
- The fraternal potter wasp will put a paralyzed caterpillar in the completed nest for the larva to eat.
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