Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp
Male, profile
Ellura
Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp
Male, Antenna & anterior
 
                      
Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp (Sceliphron laetum)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Mud Dauber & Sand Wasp (Wasp: Sphecidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Yellow & Black Mud-dauber Wasp (Sceliphron laetum)
This Photo:     Male, Wing Venation
Other names: Common Mud Dauber Wasp, Covered-cell Mud-dauber Wasp, Yellow or Black Thread-waisted Wasp or Yellow and Black Mud-dauber Wasp

Thank you Reiner Richter for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~20mm long, ~26mm wingspan.
A large wasp with a thread waist, and large mandibles. Collects mud to build cells, a nest, for it's young.
When it flies it hangs it's legs making it look even bigger.
There is another, very similar wasp in SA, Sceliphron formosum; which has all black antennae, black on the legs where they join the body and a black face.
As you can see here, S. laetum has yellow antennae (at least near the head), yellow leg joins to the body and a yellow face. The rear leg colour is different too.

Copyright © 2018-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 07-Dec-2018
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.