Mud-nesting Wasp
S5, Female, dorsal
Mud-nesting Wasp
S5, Female, profile
| Mud-nesting Wasp S5, Female, dorsal | | Mud-nesting Wasp S5, Female, profile | | ||
 | 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: | 🔍S13, Female, Wing Open, dorsal🔎 | ||||
Thank you Marco Selis for identifying and Brian Dagley 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. We've photographed 13 specimens in Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb & Mar. The nest was created in early Dec. Similar Species: Orange-striped Potter Wasp (Acarodynerus sp) : Yellow-faced Potter Wasp (Diemodynerus cf decipiens ssp decipiens) | |||||
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