The wait is over!
Last fall I found some odd-looking cocoons in my mason bee nesting tubes. I knew they were some type of wasp, but one finally emerged today!
In this photo you can see a Leafcutter Bee cocoon, far right, with the dark brown wasp cocoon next to it. The mother wasp provided lots of tasty paralyzed spiders for her little larva to eat (you can see the pile of leftovers), and then sealed the brood cell with a mud plug. Each species of wasp collects different insects as food for their carnivorous young, and without that service our gardens would be overrun with aphids, spiders and other insects.
This is what the wasp pupa looked like about three weeks ago, fully developed but lacking adult pigmentation. Mason wasps like these, that nest in tunnels or tubes, are ‘solitary’ wasps. They aren’t aggressive like ‘social’ wasps, such as hornets and yellow jackets, so no need to be afraid of them!
This is what chewed its way out of the wide end of the cocoon this morning – a quite common eastern U.S. mason wasp called Trypargilum clavatum. It has blue wings, partially yellow back legs, and a surprising amount of fuzz on its body, which will collect and disperse some pollen as it forages.
Okay, not the most exciting find from my bee tubes, but — mystery solved!
Related posts:
This entry was posted in Other Cool Insects and tagged mason wasp, Trypargilum clavatum. Bookmark the permalink.
Good morning De
This is terrific.Llearned something new this morning! Tx for posting great picks. Have u had time to read my latest email? Lets figure out what we need to do okay? Haven’t seen any activity in either house but just put leafcutter house out. Been a very trying spring. Hoping for better summer! BTW have terrific batch of new raspberry jam to share w/u guys. Took 75% of seeds out, cut the sugar back & results are terrific! TTUS I hope.
Hi Chris,
I’m so glad you wrote via the web site because I didn’t get your other email, and just found it in junk mail! So very sorry to hear about Jim’s condition, but hopefully you got some better news after the scans? Certainly good news about his job, for sure – what a relief THAT must be. Scary stuff.
Can’t imagine you have any time to even think about bee stuff, but just leave the second house out and I’m sure you’ll attract some good pollinators. Mine have been up for almost a month and I just saw my first capped tube yesterday, so it takes those little girls a long while to fill that whole six inch tube!
That raspberry jam sounds delish, but please don’t worry about that stuff. Why don’t you get your world back to ‘normal’ and then, when things even out a bit, we can make some plans.
Thanks for writing,
~Denise
Lovely!! And thanks for your dedication in educating the rest of us!
How lovely of YOU to write! Your comments are very much appreciated.