White-legged Mud-collar Wasp
Mites
Ellura
Mud-nesting Wasp
S4, Female, dorsal
 
                      
Mud-nesting Wasp (Paralastor sp ES01)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Potter Wasp (Wasp: Vespidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Mud-nesting Wasp (Paralastor sp ES01)
This Photo:     S2, Female, dorsal

Thank you Marco Selis for identifying and Brian Dagley & Tony and Jenny Dominelli for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere
~15mm long.
All Vespidae wasps can be recognised as they hold their wings up at rest and most have emarginate (indented) eyes.
As can be seen here, these build nests from mud in a line; one cell after the other.
The sequence here, of S2 building her nest, occurred within 60 sec. It shows her adding to the walls of a new cell, next to a sealed one. They are rotated to show better detail.
We had these as Paralastor, then saw some sightings of Pseudalastor concolor that looked the same. But Marco saw our observation and said "Second submarginal cell is petiolate, this leads to Paralastor."
Brian said "the key says ... petiolate or nearly so."
We set up a graphic showing the difference between the 2nd sub-marginal cell with another potter wasp. "Petiolate" indicates leaf-like. A similar term is used with ants with the "Petiole" being the thin join between thorax & gaster. Note here that "petiolate" means there is a vein joining the marginal cell (top right of each wing) and the 2nd sub-marginal cell. The "nearly so" looks likes this without the petiolate vein (so a sharp join of 3 veins). We're not sure if these "nearly so" species are in South Australia. The bottom wing is the Paralastor wasp; S5. Please recognise the veins behind the forwing are showing through, confusing the issue a bit.
James M. Carpenter "I've seen specimens with one wing having a petiolate cell and the other not." As such, while the petiolate cell will indicate Paralastor, we can't be sure that a wing without the petiolate cell isn't Paralastor. It means it's not a very good diagnostic feature of the genus.
The nest was created in early Dec.

Similar Species: Orange-striped Potter Wasp (Acarodynerus sp) : Yellow-faced Potter Wasp (Diemodynerus cf decipiens ssp decipiens)

Copyright © 2015-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 13-Dec-2015
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.