Even More Mud….

I’ve mentioned before how I don’t ever find any current Organ-pipe Mud-dauber nests in Green-Wood, whose mausoleum exteriors, with all their nooks and crannies, are full of evidence of old nests. But here’s a trio I found on Saturday. Hurrah!

Any haunter of mausoleums is bound to see metallic blue-green cuckoo wasps (Chrysididae) like these moving swiftly around the structures. They’re going the same thing I am: looking for mud-dauber wasp nests. I’m not sure which species the above are, so these in particularly may not be parasites of mud-daubers, but some of them certainly are. They lay their eggs inside the mud nest chambers; the larvae eat the host’s egg or larva and the prey stocked by the host.

Here’s another thing to look out for: a patched mud tube. The Common Blue Mud Wasp/Chalybion californicum reuses the old nests of other species.