Mabel and I sat out on the porch with a chai yesterday afternoon. Well, I had the chai and she cried because she’s decided that my chair is her chair. Anyway.
I kept getting buzzed by… something. The day before it was a leaf cutter bee complete with its little rolled circle of freshly cut leaf looking for a hole to stick it. Note to bee: I am not that hole.
But yesterday? It was a wasp. I watched as she (finally) landed on the little gate we use to prevent run away doggos. There was a splodge of delicious smelling resin already there and the wasp carried another glistening drop of resin in her jaws. She shaped it shaping it and added it to the structure she’d been working on long before I joined her.
She was building a cell, a solitary nursery! I’ve only seen the potter wasps using mud which is fantastic in itself but this was just perfection. It looked like she was working with sugar as she built up her baby’s crystal castle, using her jaws and antenna, ready for her egg (and paralysed prey to feed her baby when it hatches).
We went out later that night and could see something wriggling about in what looked to be the sealed cell!!! I’m thinking now she was likely in there, finishing off the chamber, and laying her egg and by morning she was gone.
Resin Potter Wasp
#potterwasp #wasps #australianinsects #ausgeo #australianmuseum #natgeoyourshot #natgeowildlife #bbcwildlifemagazine #bbcwildlife
