Asian Mud-dauber

There’s a new mud-dauber in the mix: Sceliphron curvatum. Indigenous to the submontane regions around the great Asian mountain chains, it is now invasive in Europe. They were introduced to North America around a decade ago. They just made it as far west as Minnesota this year.

I’ve only seen one of them, and not well at that. The pictures above are from June. So far, there have been seven Long Island observations on iNaturalist, all of them here in Brooklyn.

Recently, under a bridge in Prospect Park, I found what I think is one of the mud nests the females make.

Looks like a whole bunch of abortive starts, as well. This is more amphora-like than the very regular tube of the Yellow-legged Mud-dauber/Sceliphron caementarium, see below. (The Yellow-legged, frequently seen locally, often pack more mud around the individual tubes, resulting in a glob of mud.)