#sphecidae

[PHOTOS TAKEN: AUGUST 10TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Four photos of a dark, metallic blue common blue mud dauber on a human finger /End IDs.]

despite the lack of the classic stem-chomping pose associated with sleeping wasps, this Prionyx was clearly not fully awake or at least winding down, and only moved whenever i bothered it too much. my main intention was to show off its face and waist, but you can still see its oversized hind legs that almost resemble the grasshoppers its mom once fed it as a baby

i also got whatever this ridiculous shot is supposed to be so you can appreciate the aforementioned chompers

As the year comes to a close I wish to inundate you all with some of the coolest, prettiest or strangest wasp photos uploaded to iNat this year, inspired by @cathartidae's wauce blasts

Gonatopus and liopterid

Gasteruption and Cameronella

Eumenine and Smicromorpha doddi

Ammophila wrightii and Stilbula

Pelecinus polyturator and Chrysis viridula

Tracheliodes curvitarsis and Oxyscelio

Orasema and Apoica pallens

Scelionids and Feron kingi

Neotriadomerus and Phlebopenes

Euplectromorpha variegata and chalcids

Antron douglasii and Stylaclista

Synergus and Obenbergerella

Elasmosoma and Polistes dominula

Odontophotopsis melicausa and Stizus texanus

Stypiura and Radumeris tasmaniensis

Blue Mud Daubers - SOCAL, USA:

So, after speaking to this friend off line, we know that this species lives SoCal, and the species is likely...

Common Blue Mud Dauber (Chalybion californicum), family Sphecidae, live over much of the US, Mexico, and far southern Canada

In low light this wasp may look blackish, but in full light looks iridescent blue.

Females sting, but males cannot.

They have been introduced into the Caribbean, Hawaii, and parts of Europe.

Females either construct their own mud nests, or refurbish the nests of other mud daubers (even of other species).

Adults feed on nectar.

Females sting and paralyze spiders (mostly black widows). They place the spiders in the mud nest, and lay an egg on them. The larvae feed on the spider after hatching from the egg.

They hunt prey on low vegetation, on the ground, and under rocks and logs.

photograph by Nell Cant & Bob Noble

Chicago, IL, USA - photo by Carol Blaney

photograph by Bug Eric

Now another possibility is this one as well...

Steel Blue Cricket Hunter (Chlorion aerarium), family Sphecidae, found across the US, far northern Mexico, and extreme southern Canada.

Adults feed on nectar.

Not found near homes that often, they tend to frequent open fields.

Females paralyze crickets. They dig burrows into the ground, where the place the cricket. They then lay an egg on the cricket, which the larvae feed on.

in the photos above, she has arrived with a ball of mud collected from somewhere nearby. this nest isn't for her to live in, but for her young to grow and pupate. in this mass of mud she will craft several individual cells, and provision them all with the paralysed bodies of orb-weaver spiders. each cell will have a single egg laid on the first spider, before being sealed off with more mud.

here, she picks the next spot to deposit her ball of mud, using her mandibles to smooth it onto the structure. when the larvae hatch, they will consume all the spiders in their respective cells, before pupating and then emerging as adults wasps.

each time she finished with a layer of mud, she would take a moment to groom her forelegs and antennae, before flying off to repeat the process. these photos were taken earlier in the Summer, and as of posting this, the adult wasps have yet to emerge.