Orange Potter Wasp
Nest: Finished >1 month after start
Mud-nesting Wasp
S3: dorsal
| Orange Potter Wasp Nest: Finished >1 month after start | | Mud-nesting Wasp S3: dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Potter Wasp (Wasp: Vespidae) | ||||
| Species: | Mud-nesting Wasp (Paralastor sp ES1) | ||||
| This Photo: | S2: Female: dorsal | ||||
Thank you Marco Selis for identifying 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 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 have 4 specimens between Nov & Jan, with the nest being created in early Dec. 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." We set up a graphic showing the difference between the 2nd sub-marginal cell with another potter wasp. Note that "petiolate" means there is a vein joining the marginal cell (top right of each wing) and the 2nd sub-marginal cell. The bottom wing is the Paralastor wasp; S4. Please recognise the veins behind the forwing are showing through, confusing the issue a bit. "Petiolate" indicates leaf-like. | |||||
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